EVD: Need For Personal Hygiene

Cleanliness, it is said is
next to godliness. But a critical look at the glamour for godliness in the society in recent times placed side by side the disposition to cleanliness seems to leave a question mark on this old aphorism.
However, as if an inherent potential that awaits ignition or harnessing, cleanliness is fast becoming the order of the day, courtesy of the Ebola virus disease.
Until the outbreak of the Ebola virus disease, which had lasted for about two  months  now,  little did I know that people in this part of the world could be so conscious of personal  hygiene. Parents, children, groups, corperate organizations all have collectively become sensitive to the issues of  cleanliness and putting in their best to ensuring that this is achieved irrespective of cost, the initial fear of a typical Nigerian  in any worthwhile adventure.
So far, between the 19th and 20th centuries, two deadly and most dreaded  diseases have made their waves in the existence of the period – the Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDs) and now the Ebola Virus Disease (EVD). These assumed giants of the diseases with their accompanied lineaments of stigmatization and fear of the next fellow have relegated to the background the age- long killer disease –Malaria.
Ebola, with its agility is taking the lead against the HIV/AIDs in comparism to the life span and chances of survival of  contracted  patient. It is then no gain saying that the fear of Ebola virus is the beginning of the survival of any  human of this age or period. So that with the measures  of handwashing and saniti-sing of same, not leaving others behind however, Ebola virus has metamorphosed into a conscientious instinct of cleanliness among the present human race.
Ordinarily, a typical Nigerian is almost synonymous with cleanliness evident in  the environment and views or opinions  towards hygiene. Take the instance  of a mechanic  who just  worked on an engine of a car with his palm and body covered with dirt and engine oils, yet with the same palm he/she picks up a stick of carrot or cucumber and begins to eat. Still, someone who just finished   using the convenience (ladies or gents) and bounced on his/her roasted plantain or eba with the palm unwashed. For us, it is almost a normalcy as the habit is found among a greater percentage of the people. The effect, hygienically can not be over emphasised.
This carelessness is to the extent  that an attempt to maintain some form of hygiene especially at the open places leaves one with the ridiculous stigma of an ‘ajebota’, the Nigerian stigma of right etiquette or behavior. Suffice it to say therefore, that in the Nigerian system particularly, the sense of cleanliness is the prerogative of the rich (‘ajes’).
Ebola virus, within its short period of outbreak has had its filled day. People do not repeat worn clothes that touch the bodies of others in the public. A longsleeve dress or shirt on trouser gives the impression of protection when outside the home.
The virus has succeeded in leading to the cancellation of most public functions that would attract bodily contact. This cancellation cuts across the education, religion, social sectors as well as political rallies among others.
Most interesting is the awareness by even infants of less than two years to check their usual lifestyle of putting every and anything including their dirty fingers into their mouth. In the  course of their play, they want to wash their hands as many  times as possible not mindful of the expense  of finance on the purchase  of the hand wash (dishwasher and sanitizer by their parents.
A situation where just a rise in temperature (an almost normal changes in the human body system), fever or headache, (the general symptoms of any other mild and manageable disease) could adduce  one to be an Ebola infected patient is not to be treated lightly. Following the stigmatization even when  quarantined, the emotional trauma  is unimaginable.
With its express route to death   in just about 21 days of contraction and non-quarantine, every individual is concisouly avoiding the stigma and loss of life by abiding with the rules of handwashing and sanitizing, a simple but difficult practice in the recent past.
With the government  doing its best to combat the spread of the virus, the call now is obedience  to the  rules of personal hygiene.
It  has now dawn on humans that prevention is indeed, better  than  cure as against the obvious  neglect  of the former, the very object of preservation  of health.
The Ebola virus disease has brought it to fur  that  health is not the result of chance but of obedience to its rules. It is the duty of every person, for  his sake and that of humanity to inform himself in regard to the laws of life and conscientiously  obeying them.
Indeed, it has proven that there are two sides to every coin. For us, the one side of the EVD (a welcome development) is the awakened consciousness of personal  hygiene which if upheld  would naturally diffuse the other  side-sudden death.
Regarding the source of the virus, it should be noted that man is the only creature given to the practice of self-destroying habits. The span of life has not been lengthened, and there is no prospect that it soon will be. We must urge upon men and  women the vital importance of self mastery in controlling the appetites and passions thereby keeping the body in good health.

Lady Godknows Ogbulu