Why Africans Should Be worried About COVID19 - UCH Virologist

A consultant virologist at the University College Hospital, Ibadan, Dr Adeola Fowotade, in this interview with WALE OYEWALE sheds light on some issues surrounding coronavirus

Coronavirus is a fast-growing menace, what must be done to curtail its spread in Nigeria?

I think the most important thing is that we need to understand the epidemiology and the pathogenesis of the virus because without understanding these two things, it would be very difficult to prevent the spread. Again, we need to have a very high level of preparedness and surveillance for us to be able to pick it at an early stage and be able to prevent a rapid spread among the community, especially among health care workers.

It is very important for the health care workers to have very high knowledge of how one can contract the virus and what to do to be able to manage the case. Again, it is very important to raise the level of awareness even at the community level so that everybody will know how to protect themselves, and if they see a case they would raise an alarm so that the case could be isolated and managed properly before it becomes a risk to other members of the community. I think if we are able to do all this, we should be able to prevent the rapid spread of the virus in Nigeria.

Our borders are so porous; in your own view, is the Federal Government doing enough to police the entry points against coronavirus incursion?

Honestly, to a large extent, I would tell you that the Nigerian government has done a lot of work between February 15th and 18th before the virus came to Nigeria. I was part of the committee that met in Abuja under the aegis of the Nigerian Society for Disease Control. Essentially, what we were doing at that time was to develop guidelines for screening people that are entering or leaving this country. It was at that meeting that we decided that it was better to have a thermal monitor rather than an infra red thermometer; the type they put on people’s forehead. So, let’s have a screen that can measure people’s temperature when they pass through the exit.

Now, if you go to the airport, you will find out that they have these cameras especially in the five cities where we have international airports such as Lagos, Abuja, Port Harcourt, Kano and Enugu, they have thermal monitors there.  By the time the Italian passed through thermal thermometer, he did not have fever. Naturally because he did not have fever, you cannot quarantine the person. What you will find at this time is that at the points of entry we had people there monitoring those coming in and going out. We have thermal monitors there monitoring their temperature.

And even if you are on a flight coming into Nigeria, you fill the case investigation form while you are still on board trying to look for information about where you have been to? Do you have any symptoms and who have you had contacts with? All these are means of catching up with you if you possibly have this infection and you carry it into the country. Honestly, there is a lot going on in terms of surveillance at the points of entry. One would not know unless one passes through these entry points.

Do you think we have sufficient facilities in the country to quarantine victims of the virus?

What we have at the moment are five treatment centres. The treatment centres where the health workers go through education, awareness and training that they need for the management of coronavirus. We only have five designated centres which are the international points of entry while for all other states the only thing they have is the isolation bay. Definitely, there is need for more especially if we have the spread of COVID-19, the transmitability is very high. If there is increase there would definitely be need for more quarantine units than what we have at the moment. We definitely don’t have enough as at now.

Do you think government is doing enough in terms of awareness?

On level of awareness, if everything happens at the level of the Federal Government, then it never would go round sufficiently. I would say at the moment, the Nigerian Centre for Disease Control is doing a lot. I saw a video the other day of Funke Akindele; they have gone to the extent of using artistes to convey the message because they know that a lot of people want to listen to those kinds of persons.

Every time you go online you see that they are either on Instagram or Facebook. They have a website that is dedicated to frequently asked questions with responses and a lot of updates on what happened with COVID-19 in Nigeria and outside Nigeria.

But this is what is happening at the level of the Federal Government; there is a need for a lot more awareness 

to be done at the state level. That is the only way it can reach out to more people. I expect that at this time, we are going to have billboards showing how people can protect themselves with jingles on radio and television, newspapers and we are going to have fliers and walk rallies to sensitise people on the way to protect themselves.

We will also reach out to people that do not have any contact with social media. We are supposed to be able to reach out to all these people by now so they would know that there is a threat called COVID-19. If anything is done at the state level it should trickle down to the local government councils.

During the outbreak of Ebola and Lassa fever, we were taught on the need for hand washing, but soon after the spread ended, we reverted to our old ways; in what ways does this our inconsistency make us susceptible to diseases?

Studies done showed that 95 per cent of infections are preventable by hand washing. It looks like the simplest thing that can be done and it is as basic as that. Yet, people find it difficult to comply. But, it is what we really need to do at the moment. When we are talking of hand washing, it has to be done thoroughly; you have to wash the back of your hand and the inter-digital spaces, wash the tip of your fingers up to your toes and then rinse with running water not in a bowl where five people wash in a bowl. Having washed with soap, you will then wash in running water. We wash after going to the restroom, before we eat and after eating; when our children go to play; after coming back from school, when we return from work, every time, we must wash our hands. When we received money, after coming from the ATM, we must wash our hands. The virus can survive on spaces. If we don’t have water where we are, we can use hand sanitizers which has alcohol. We can use that as a temporary means pending when we would get to where there is water.

In developing countries of the world, we rely on outcomes of researches that were embarked upon by foreign researchers; why is it very difficult for us to get solutions locally?

 One of the things is because in developed countries, research is an everyday affair. The environment makes it easy for them. There is always light. You can keep your chemicals in the fridge unlike here when there is power outage; you begin to run helter-shelter. It is not that they are more intelligent. What they have that we don’t really have is the structure and the support that can make research to thrive. But we are not doing too badly even at the moment. Researchers in Redeemers University, Ede, in collaboration with the Nigerian Centre for Disease Control had been able to look at the genetic sequence of the virus of the Italian and also traced its origin and they traced its similarities with the virus that is circulating in Europe.

It is being deliberated that more money be added to the budget to tackle the virus, but the fear is would the money be appropriately channelled for the purpose it is meant?

Naturally, we are battling with corruption in Nigeria. It is something that cuts across all sectors of the economy. Naturally, one would have some fears about the implementation. But then, I think to increase the budget is the right thing to do for the possibility of having some funds to tackle the problem. This is what is happening everywhere in the world; even in the United States. It is what we should be doing in the country. We need money to build the facilities and to ensure we put all necessary logistics in place. It is a lot of money and a lot of work. One can only hope that the implementation would be full.

It is said that the heat in the temperate region is unfavourable to COVID-19. If this is true, why then are we so worried about the case of the outbreak?

The reason why we would still worry is that whatever postulation or position we take with regard to the virus is because it is a respiratory virus and looking at the nature one can say that it should not thrive for a long period in places that are hot because of the heat, but with COVID-19, there are a lot of things that we don’t know, we need to also put that window of unknown as we cannot predict 100 per cent outcome of the pattern. So, we still need to prepare for it as something that would last for a very long time so we don’t get stranded along the way.

 

Right now, there is no vaccine anywhere. Even for China, they don’t have any vaccine at the moment. There is a vaccine that everybody is looking forward to, and that is the one that is being developed in Israel which, we are hoping, should be able to get to human trial stage in another six to eight weeks. But, at the moment, there is no vaccine anywhere. The thing with China is that the number of new cases is reducing. The number of deaths has slowed down.

For us in Nigeria, even though we don’t have the capacity in terms of large scale response that China was able to deploy in the case of COVID-19, we might not have that. Maybe what works in our favour is that for China, it came suddenly but for us, I think we had the time to prepare. Even the Director General of the World Health Organisation seems quite pleased with the situation of things in Nigeria so far. If we are able to keep on thinking, I don’t think we might get overwhelmed by COVID-19.

How correct is the claim that garlic and bitter leaf can remedy the virus?

At this time, it is not unusual to see a lot of information on social media about taking chloroquine and bathing in chloroquine .water. We heard about drinking salt water.  People pour alcohol over their bodies. Garlic or bitter kola is not going to stop the virus. Other than that, we have always known that whether it is garlic or bitter kola, they are good for our health. They, probably, would help the immune system, but they are not, by themselves have any anti-viral property that has been proved against COVIC 19. One should follow the standard precautions that have been outlined for infection prevention and control.

What is the origin of COVID-19?

Coronavirus had been in existence as far back as 1970s when they were first identified and COVID-19 happens to be one of the coronaviruses but the thing with COVID-19 is that up until 31st of December, 2019, it had not surfaced as an human infection. It was first identified in China. There had been a lot of postulations about the source of COVID-19. Some linked it to bats, some pangolins while some linked it to eating of animals, some even linked it to cats. However, up till now, nobody is really sure.

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