Sanitizer
Hand sanitizer that hitherto sold for N300 has suddenly gone up to N1000 and above as most organisations insist as an unwritten code that the liquid must be applied on the hand before any one steps into their officers. Some organisations even went a step further to acquire easy to handle equipment to test somebody’s temperature. A security man said that anybody with temperature above 36 is politely turned back at the company’s gate.
Long sleeve shirts now in vogue
Fear that the virus is contracted from body fluid like sweat, spittle, and so on has triggered off a new sense of fashion in Port Harcourt. You see more long sleeve shirts on streets now. ”I wear long sleeve shirts now because it protects my body from fluid in other people’s body.”
Commercial sex workers lament low patronage
Commercial sex workers who hang around night life areas in the new GRA , Port Harcourt grumbled about poor patronage since the outbreak of the disease. “I am an Aristo, (a euphemism for commercial sex workers), Ebola has spoilt our runs. Its so bad now that the real men dont come around anymore. You see small boys coming to take advantage of the bad weather to talk sex with us”, a girl said.
Ebola is politics
Surprisingly youths who spoke to our correspondent at some local restaurants code named Long bench in Port Harcourt said the whole issue of Ebola was riddled with politics. “How do you convince me that a state that said there was no Ebola case a day before suddenly woke up the next day to say they had 100 persons on its watch list. I am confused. It is all politics. I am not saying it is not there but the various governments are playig politics with it. How do you say people are on watchlist yet they walk freely on our streets”, this source queried.
Youths in Emohua protest location of Quarantine centre
Before the outbreak of Ebola in the state youths of Emohua local government had protested against the siting of the Ebola quarantine centre in Oduoha community in the local government. They feared that the disease was airborne. It took effort of the state Commissioner of Health, Dr Parker to calm them. Some had also said the local government already housed Disease control hospital so it would be unfair to site Ebola quarantine centre in the area.
Meanwhile, Governor Amaechi has assured that the state was capable of containing spread of the virus, adding that it would work with the federal government and other foreign-based organisations to manage the situation. “I don’t want anybody infected to feel shy and possibly take it to the rural areas because it could affect your children, family and relations and may result to death. That will be too disastrous. When you have high fever that you can’t account for, please, don’t go to any Primary health centre, come to the corridors of government and our doctors will pick you and give you adequate treatment. It is not a case all doctors can handle. Our doctors will take care of your medical treatment, feed you, so you can survive. You can see that a lot of patients infected by the Ebola virus have been successfully discharged in Lagos State. That is because of the quick response by those who reported and received adequate medical care,””There is no need to panic because the Ebola virus is not air borne.”, he said. The fear of Ebola has suddenly gripped all residents of the state. All you hear in Port Harcourt is ”God save us from Ebola”. (Vanguard)
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