Nigerian community protests Ebola quarantine center, another center attacked
Citizens from the Down Quarters area of Kaduna South Local Government of Kaduna State staged a peaceful protest on Wednesday over the proposed location of an Ebola quarantine center within the community. This comes after an attack on a quarantine center in Monrovia resulting in infected patients fleeing and likely infecting others.
Photo/CDC
The Kaduna protesters are speaking against the location of the center, according to the Nigerian Tribune Aug. 28 article. They are “reacting on why government would not establish the center far away from human communities.”
The article notes that “the deputy governor of Kaduna State, Ambassador Nuhu Audu Bajoga, who is also Chairman of the Ebola committee in the state, said the government would prefer a nearby location, where victims could easily be conveyed, and not a far location, which could lead to death of the victims or other hardships on the way to the location.”
Quarantine centers are increasingly dangerous as “wild rumors that the virus was invented by the West” has stirred distrust and an attack on the Monrovia location, as documented in New Vision coverage.
“They broke down the door and looted the place. The patients have all gone,” a witness said of the attack in the article which quoted a resident who explained the unhappiness with the center’s location.
While reiterating that there was no Ebola case in Kaduna, the deputy governor said the center would be about 100 meters away from the community; therefore, there won’t be any health risk.
One of the protest leaders, named Ojjo, explained his community’s outrage.
“We got the shock of our life when they told us that the government intended to use the area as a disease control area including patients of Human Immune Virus/Acquired Immuno Deficiency Syndrome (HIV/AIDs) and Ebola Virus.”
“The community is not comfortable with the development and as if that is not enough, the Commissioner of Health in Kaduna State, Dr Joseph Thot and his permanent secretary visited the facility and even refused to give any explanation for their visit to the community,” the article states.
Ebola made global headlines once American physicians became infected during treatment. The Global Dispatch’s Robert Herriman spoke with Jesse Ventura on “Off The Grid” about the disease, its danger to America and beyond – check that out HERE
