Outbreak of CSM in the North

THE nation’s newspapers reported the outbreak of cerebrospinal meningitis (CSM) in some parts of the North, recently. The reports claimed that many Nigerians’ lives were put at great risk as a result of the disease’s outbreak and several others could be affected.

IN the reports, Kebbi State was said to have recorded many cases of CSM, claiming the life of a student with several others receiving treatment in the hospitals. The situation in Niger State was worse. Nine persons were reported dead while many others were in the hospitals battling for their lives.

IT is instructive to note, however, that in the two states, the state governments’ responses to the deadly disease were spontaneous and far-reaching. In Kebbi State, for instance, medical officers of the Sir Yahaya Memorial Hospital, Birnin Kebbi, had to be recalled. Members of staff of parastatal agencies in the Ministry of Health were also deployed in the hospital to attend to the CSM patients.

THE authorities in the two states, reportedly, picked the medical bills of the victims. They also embarked on enlightenment campaigns to stem the spread of the disease.

CSM is a disease in which the tissues enclosing the brain and the spinal cord become swollen and infected. It causes severe headache, fever and stiffness of the neck. And these, in some cases, can lead to death. Though the disease is very common in the northern part of the country, other areas also have cases of CSM, especially during the dry season. Though the disease is not contagious, it has, nonetheless, claimed hundreds of lives. During the outbreak of the disease in 1996 in Kano State, which claimed many lives, the pharmaceutical giant, Pfizer, administered a newly developed drug, Trovan, on some victims of the disease. But the experiment turned out to be fatal, as the drug was said to have killed some children. The matter is now a subject of litigation between the Nigerian government and the pharmaceutical company.

ONE factor that experts have identified as being responsible for the recurring incidents of CSM is the kind of shelter that is available to the ordinary man in the northern part of the country. Millions of rural dwellers in the North, for instance, live in thatched and mud “houses” with very little ventilation. Most of the houses have just one entrance and no provision for windows. In the dry season, such houses, without ventilation, will be exceptionally hot to inhabit with serious health implications for the inhabitants. Unfortunately, these are the houses most rural dwellers in the north, in particular, and other parts of Nigeria live in and, thus, are exposed to the high risk of suffering from diseases such as CSM.

THE nation’s leadership needs to enlighten people on the type of houses they can inhabit. They need to educate the people on houses that are inhabitable and/or conducive to healthy living. The rural dwellers, it has been established, are very vital to the economic well-being of the nation. They are the farmers, the cattle rearers and the little fishermen who with their “expertise” feed the nation. The health and well-being of these people, therefore, should be the concern of the government. Government, particularly the nothern states’ governors, would need to mount campaigns on the necessity for living in houses— even if they are built with mud— that are well-ventilated. They need to enlighten the people on the risk attached to living in airless buildings, particularly in the dry season. They would also need to make available CSM vaccines in their states’ hospitals and make it compulsory for people to be innoculated.

WE commend both the Niger and Kebbi state governments for the mature manner they handled the cases of CSM outbreak in their states. The other states in the north should not wait until the disease begins to ravage their people before they take actions. Prevention is not only better than cure; it also spares one the agony of catering to the sick as well as saves costs.

fighting hunger with prayers

NIGERIANS are very religious people. They are very prayerful. In fact Nigerians pray about anything and it is good to pray.

IT is believed that in the dark days of the Abacha rulership, prayers were used to hasten the expiration of the maximum dictator. It is also said that, many Nigerians when afflicted by deadly diseases often resort to praying for miraculous deliverance, when just ordinary visit to the hospital could have brought them great relief.

IT appears that some Nigerians have found a convenient solution to the global food crisis, especially as it relates to their country. The coordinator of the Single and Married Fellow Network (SMF), Pastor Peace Emmanuel, according to newspaper reports, had urged his fellow countrymen to put their trust in God. As the ultimate provider, Pastor Emmanuel said, God “ is ready to provide for you as he provided for the widow and Elijah when there was famine”.

THE generosity and abundance of God’s grace are never in doubt. He is the ultimate giver and conditioner of all human and inhuman existence. But there is a limit to which God’s generosity should be exploited. With the abundance of arable land He has generously endowed Nigeria, God has sufficiently provided for this nation never to be hungry. But if Pastor Emmanuel thinks that through prayers, this vast land would be cultivated, then he is stretching God’s generosity to extreme limits.

PRAYERS, it is true, can move mountains. But it is yet to be proved whether a starving person, who naturally will be angry, will have time for prayer. If it is true that prayers can provide food on the table, then no one would need to labour. The message, we believe, Pastor Emmanuel should be sharing with Nigerians is for everyone to labour on the vast arable land that God has given to the country; it is the fruits of such labour that can banish hunger from the land.