Ebola: 'Bitter kola' in high demand, pork business nose-dives

With many now grappling with the fact that the Ebola virus is now fully around the corner, The Guardian Post attempts a look at the emotional cost of the outbreak and various ways Cameroonians are deploying to remain safe.

A female banker in down town Yaounde at the weekend was rummaging through her bags. She was frantically searching for something and any other thing happening in her immediate environment did not seem to matter as she kept searching.

Finally, relief came to her face as she looked up and saw the curious look in the face of a male colleague. Asked what she had been looking for, she said it was the lobes of bitter kola she bought on her way to the office.

Another banker, Seraphine Asanji told The Guardian Post that one of her colleagues came to the office with a sizeable number of lobes of bitter kola in his pocket while she also had some in her hand bag. Yet, as The Guardian Post gathered, this was someone who had never tasted bitter kola until news of the Ebola virus outbreak.

This is what the outbreak of Ebola disease has brought to many as they device ways to beat the virus to its own game. Nowadays, from bitter kola to bathing with water mixed with salt, panic-stricken individuals are looking for ways to be a step above the dreaded virus just as the emotional cost rises.

In the midst of this, however, the question remains: did the Liberian, the late Patrick Sawyer deliberately come to next door Nigeria to spread the dreaded Ebola virus to the whole of Africa? This is no doubt the question many are asking as the human as well as emotional costs of the disease mount.

According to reports, the late Liberian was said to have escaped from where he had been quarantined and came to Nigeria where he eventually succumbed to the deadly virus. And as part of the collateral damage, his ill-fated trip to Nigeria has cost the nurse who attended to him her life; apparently from the disease.

The late Sawyer was said to have contracted the disease from his late sister whom he took care of until her death. Sawyer is reported to have acted erratically and looked sick on CCTV footage from Liberia’s James Spriggs Payne Airport in Monrovia, Liberia, raising security suspicion there. Despite this, he was allowed to fly out of the country.

ECOWAS vice president, Toga Mcintosh, further confirmed that Sawyer did in fact flee medical watch placed on him after his sister’s reported death. The regional body chief explained: “Because he had contact with somebody who died from Ebola, he was quarantined in his own country, but he evaded the quarantine and went to Nigeria.”

If indeed he had been quarantined as being claimed, how was he able to escape and even go to the airport and travel all the way to Nigeria? It was this unwholesome trip that is causing deaths, panic and fear among Nigerians and neighbours like Cameroon.

Right now, interpersonal relationships are at its lowest just as the rumour mill has gone into over-drive as different ‘solutions’ are being ‘discovered’ everyday for the fight against the dreaded virus.

Mass fear, mass hysteria Handshakes, hugging and other forms of body contacts have been reduced; even among those who have had close inter-personal relationship for ages. Added to this is mass hysteria which has brought up many ideas on how to prevent contracting the virus.

Words have started flying around that people should bathe with warm salty water. In fact, a time frame has been added to it: One has to do the bathing before eight o’clock in the morning. The reason being advanced by medics is that Ebola virus is now in the air.

In the early 80s, when the Human Immuno-deficiency Virus, HIV, which leads to the dreaded Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS), was first detected, the response then was that of fear, misinformation and outright lies.

The hysteria that followed probably led to many resigning to inevitable death upon being diagnosed as being infected with the virus. During that period, many even went as far as saying that seeing someone infected with the disease could make someone contract it.

This was not to talk of handshake and bodily contacts. What this led to was stigmatisation of anyone with the disease, and this practice has, unfortunately, remained to this day.

Pork business nose-dives Health officials are quoted as telling members of the public that there is nothing wrong in the consumption of game meat. This development follows tons of telephone messages that: "Avoid eating pork (pig/ swine meat), monkeys, bats and chimpanzees…in short, avoid eating bush meat…these are potential sources/ carriers/ transmitters of the Ebola virus…eat at least one bitter kola a day to prevent infection…".

Despite the above warning, some health officials are telling members of the public that there is no cause for alarm with bush meat-consumption in Cameroon; at least for now.

Good explanation but that seems to be as far as it goes. Sellers of pork especially in the Obili, Chapelle-Obili and the Madagascar neighbourhoods in Yaounde where the popular delicacy is usually patronised by both the rich and poor, seem to have been the worst hit by the fear of Ebola virus.

Already, many of them are complaining of low patronage as most Yaounde city dwellers have started avoiding pork joints in the nation’s capital.

A young man in his mid-twenties forwarded this message to me: "God is great! Ebola virus may not be good but it’s nice that it came so that young men like me can be saved from the hands of ladies concerning meat palaver. I beg God to extend it to fish, chicken, soya and other pepperish things".