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| Dr. Raymond Jurit |
Lockdown on Plateau State for Fumigation:
Wasting Soap and Water on the streets – By Dr. Raymond Jurit. MB; BS; MPH
Epidemiologist
The Plateau
State government has declared a total lock down on the state to enable it
"fumigate" the state in response to the COVID- 19 pandemic which is
steadily ravaging the world and showing no sign of abating. Before now, the
state has closed its borders in a desperate move to stop a cross border
transmission of the disease. Presently, Bauchi and Kaduna states have recorded
cases of Covid19 with no deaths. Other measures put in place by the government
include advocating for social distancing and other hygienic practices like hand
hygiene.
Other
nations had used fumigation as a way of slowing down the transmission of this
disease and I believe the state government is "copying and pasting"
this process which I believe has no basis. First and foremost, do we have cases
(including asymptomatic cases) on the Plateau? The only way to answer this
question is through mass testing of people at risk of getting this infection
i.e those that have travelled to areas with cases, health workers. This has not
been done. The state has no testing centre. We can not therefore determine the
disease burden in the state. The other
thing to do is to determine if there is any environmental pollution with the
virus.
Fumigation
will be carried with chemicals that are expected to kill the virus. These
chemicals must have the capacity to remain in the environment for a long time
for them to be effective. They also have to be heat resistant. What I mean is
that if they can only stay active for six hours, for example, then it means
that the fumigation process has to be repeated at six hours interval.
Considering the size of our towns, one wonders how effective this project will
be.
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| Ongoing Fumigation in Plateau State |
Our towns
are "infested" with heaps of refuse. These are fertile ground for any
disease agent. How do we "fumigate" this kind of environment?
The
government's response to this threat is being resisted by the people. They feel
that the government cannot keep them indoors without some form of
compensation.(palliatives). Social
distancing as a form of stopping the transmission of this disease in Nigeria
might not succeed unless the government gives out some palliatives. Traders will
need some form of compensation to stop going to markets. This will involve huge
sums at a time government income is fast decreasing.
When you keep people indoors without food
the chances of rioting will be real. This will render any effort in disease
control and prevention completely useless. We need people to cooperate fully
with government so that we can prevent this disease from setting its foot in
the state. I therefore feel that this
effort of fumigating the state even though with good intentions might just be
an effort in wasting soap and water on the streets. Please let's use the money
for strategic food reserves and other measures that will stop the spread of
this disease. We do not know for how long this pandemic will last.
The options being taken by Government is not wasteful but part of the solution. B. P. Ishaku
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