Over 100 returnees from Nigeria locked up over Ebola fears

Reports from the South-West region say over one hundred Cameroonians returning from Nigeria are currently held at a police post in Ekok, a Cameroonian border town with Nigeria.

They were taken into custody on August 19, by Cameroonian security forces in efforts to prevent the possible spread of Ebola Virus Disease from Nigeria to Cameroon.

The citizens, majority of them said to have been returning from a trip to T.B Joshua’s Synagogue Church of All Nations in Lagos, are reportedly being held under very inhumane conditions.

It is alleged that they are being held in a tight cell poorly ventilated and there are fears that all the detainees would be infected with the deadly virus, if any among them was infected while in Nigeria.

Cameroon Journal was reliably informed yesterday that no medical team is available at the police post, and that the suspects have not been examined by any medical doctor since they were taken in.

The Cameroonians, among them some businessmen, were taken in about the same day the Governor of the South West region, Bernard Okalia Bilai held a meeting with stakeholders in the health sector in Buea to lay down strategies for the implementing government’s resolve to shut down all borders with Nigeria.

The decision to close the borders with Nigeria came after the World Health Organisation declared Cameroon a risk zone, following serological evidence that five people in Nigeria had been killed by the Ebola Virus disease.

The governor revealed that there was already a quarantine plan put in place for Cameroonians coming into the country from Nigeria to be kept for a check up. He said that after the check-ups they would be obliged to provide their addresses and phone numbers for further follow up. Foreigners, he said, referring mostly of Nigerians will not be allowed into Cameroon.

Njie Mbome Victor, medical doctor and Regional Delegate for the Ministry of Public Health, said at the meeting that surveillance measures have been stepped up and medical teams will be monitoring the people at the borders. Even so, this has so far not been the case with the case in Ekok.

He recommended that communication should be improved in Manyu and Ndian divisions where communication is difficult.

Manyu, he said, has so many entrances from Nigeria into Cameroon and urged councillors and other stakeholders to identify them, while sensitising inhabitants on the risks and prevention methods of the EVD.

Meanwhile, Some 29 persons suspected to be carriers of the Ebola Virus were quarantined in Douala last Sunday August 17. As prescribed by the public health officials, they would remain under medical survey for 21 days.

The suspected victims touched down the Douala International Airport from Lome, Togo.

Among the 29, 24 were Cameroonians, two from Nigeria, two others from Guinea Conakry and two from Mali. Victor Kame, coordinator of the Littoral regional centre for the prevention and fight against epidemics, told the press that though the passengers were not sick, the fact that they were coming from countries, which have confirmed cases of the disease, required that they be kept away from people until after close examination.

He said they had been briefed on the reasons why they were not allowed to get mingled with other passengers and citizens. He revealed that separate follow-up sheets had been prepared for all 29 passengers who were on the flight.

Their contacts in Cameroon and in the various countries from which they were coming were also recorded by the centre for the prevention and fight against epidemics unit.

The director of the centre told reporters that measures had already been taken to ensure that the Ebola virus, which has already taken lives in Guinea Conakry, Liberia, Nigeria and Sierra Leone should not affect Cameroonians.

Just as the case of the Douala airport, flights to and fro countries with confirmed cases of EVD have been banned in all airports in Cameroon. The medical teams at the airports have the possibility of determining whether or not planes from ‘safe’ countries are carrying passengers from countries with confirmed cases.

In a case were an infected person is identified, the medical team which has the necessary equipment and outfit to handle the patients are dispatched to take them to the lone hospital in Douala, which has the capacity to handle the Ebola Virus disease.