Ebola: A Wake Up Call For Africa
‘Until the white man produces something that flies faster….this is the best we have’ mused one of our aircraft engineers during a brainstorming session on how our team of Flying Doctors can reach accident scenes faster.
I think this statement resonates with many Africans across the continent who have been led to believe that innovation has, does and will always flow one way: from the West to Africa.
Ebola was first reported in Africa in the 1960’s. But since the initial outbreak there has been no organised, well-funded effort on the continent to either find a cure or create a vaccine. In this case, like many others, we chose to be complacent, until the inevitable happened and then call in the cavalry.
Unfortunately, in this instance, when we called, the cavalry did not come. We were ill prepared, under-educated and under-informed about diseases which till this present outbreak, primarily affected Africa and Africans. We relied on information about this African problem from Western organisations when we had time and resources to create a world-class body of knowledge on Ebola. With vast amounts of experience from several outbreaks it should be the voices of African infectious disease experts, educating the world. But the reverse is the case.
When the outbreak came to Nigeria, Nigerian’s had a choice. Either to wait for the cavalry to arrive or to rely on our own expertise. Thankfully, we had the advantage of being able to see how disastrous the consequences of waiting had been for our colleagues in Liberia and Guinea. So the Nigerian Ministry of Health assisted by the WHO and CDC launched what is probably the most successful public health campaign in Nigerian history . Not only was it a world class piece of epidemiological detective work, but a testament to the level of professionalism of the hundreds of healthcare workers involved in tackling the outbreak. It’s amazing that none of the doctors working in the Nigerian Ebola centres contracted the disease. Whilst even several American and Spanish healthcare workers did.
If could Nigeria could win this healthcare battle, we can win other healthcare battles also. But we must not be afraid to take a leadership role and experiment with unorthodox ideas. At the time Nigeria started screening temperatures at the local and international airports and placing restrictions on flights, these ideas were controversial. But we did it anyway. Months later, we see airports in London and New York and Paris implementing these same measures.
Revolutionising healthcare in Africa will not be easy, we will make mistakes, but taking leadership, rather than waiting for external help is not an option.
The battle with Ebola rages on in Liberia, Cote D’voire and Guinea, I am confident we will beat Ebola. But the cost of waiting has been too high.
After West Africa has been declared Ebola free, I would like to see a pan-African research and development laboratory set-up, in collaboration with international agencies, but most importantly some of the brightest young graduates on the continent. The facility should aim to create African healthcare solutions for Africa problems. Africa’s true wealth does not lie in the ground, in our natural resources. African’s true wealth lies in the minds of its young people, who if given the opportunity, will deliver healthcare solutions for Africa and for the world.
Relying solely on external help is not an option. This Ebola outbreak has been a painful wake up call that has cost us the lives of our brothers, sisters and children. I hope this will be the last.
Photo credit: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Public Health Image Library