Okada, Buses can spread Ebola - Dr Adesokan

The Medical and Dental Consultants Association of Nigeria, (MDCAN), has expressed concern that okada riders and those who patronize commercial buses could be the major group at risk and also the major avenue that would fuel the spread of the Ebola virus disease, through body contact on commercial motorcycles and in buses.

The group expressed this concern in a statement signed by the president, Dr. Steven Oluwole, and assistant secretary-general, Dr. A. Adesokan, in Abuja, on Friday.

MDCAN also condemned the federal government’s sensitisation approach, which centred only on handshake and contact with body fluid of those who already tested positive for the virus.

According to MDCAN, “The approach of prevention, which centred on avoidance of handshakes, ignores that the modes of transportation in Nigeria, which include crowded buses and motor bikes, encourage intimate body contact that exceeds handshakes.”

MDCAN further lamented that rigorous contact tracing were not instituted after the index case was identified in Lagos, which might have fueled the spread of the virus to different parts of the country.

The group further said;

“Failure to model that infected health workers in Lagos may have transmitted to contacts whilst shopping, commuting, or recreating; failure to model that contacts of Ebola cases in Lagos may have travelled to any other region in the country; no evidence of establishment of Ebola management centres in all regions of the country.”

This reports is culled from the Daily Independent.