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Monday 6 October 2014

Ebola: Lessons for US from Nigeria

Health workers attending to Ebola patients at a clinic in Monrovia, Liberia.... on Monday.
In the comity of West African nations affected by the Ebola Virus Disease, Nigeria and Cameroon have been singled out for their prompt response and effective contact tracing mechanism. Less than seven weeks after the late index case, Mr. Patrick Sawyer, imported the EVD into the Nigeria from Liberia, there is yet to be any suspected or confirmed case.
Stakeholders have said that the United States, which recorded its own index case on September 20, when a Liberian, Mr. Thomas Eric Duncan, travelled from Liberia the US, can take away a lesson or two from Nigeria’s quick response.
Minister of Health, Professor Onyebuchi Chukwu, said there were more than 800 primary and secondary contacts between Sawyer and the ECOWAS official, Olu Koye-Ibukun, who took the virus from Lagos to Port Harcourt. In the end, health workers reportedly made 18,500 face-to-face visits, checking on the contacts for any symptoms of the disease.
On September 10, Chukwu had announced a total number of 19 confirmed EVD cases with seven deaths.
In the US, the wheel of contact tracing has been set in motion and the number of primary and secondary contacts of Duncan whittled down to 15.
Reuters report on Sunday said, “While devastating reports continue to stream out of West Africa, where the deadly virus has overwhelmed already weak public health systems and left thousands of people dead, and anxiety grips the US over the first case of Ebola diagnosed in the country, one nation serves as an example of hope: Nigeria, which appears to have successfully contained Ebola.
“As concerns spread over US hospitals’ readiness, there are some lessons to be learned from Nigeria, where officials managed to get ahead of the fast-moving virus after it was brought into Africa’s most populous country by an Ebola-infected man, who had flown into Lagos. This week, the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention reported that the outbreak could be coming to an end in Nigeria, with no new Ebola cases since August 31.
“As in the US case, Ebola arrived in Nigeria by passenger plane. But unlike Thomas Eric Duncan, who arrived in Dallas before he became symptomatic and was therefore not contagious during his flights from Liberia to Texas through Brussels and Dulles International Airport, Patrick Sawyer was already symptomatic when he landed in Lagos on July 20. At that point, Sawyer, Nigeria’s index case was contagious and dying.”
It continued, “It was a nightmare scenario with the potential to spiral out of control, given the bustling city of Lagos, Africa’s largest, is a major transport hub. As Sawyer was placed in isolation, public health officials had to track down every single person who had come into contact with him, from the flights he had boarded to the Lagos airport and the private hospital where he went after landing. And they had to do so quickly, making the process known as contact tracing a priority.
“In the whole system approach in beating the war on Ebola, contact tracing is the key public health activity that needs to be done,” said Gavin MacGregor-Skinner, who helped with the Ebola response in Nigeria with the Elizabeth R. Griffin Research Foundation. “The key is to find all the people that patient had direct close contact with.”
“From that single patient came a list of 281 people, MacGregor-Skinner said. Every one of those individuals had to provide health authorities twice-a-day updates about their well-being, often through methods like text-messaging. Anyone who didn’t feel well or failed to respond was checked on, either through a neighbourhood network or health workers.
Nigeria took a “whole community approach,” with everyone from military officials to church elders in the same room, discussing how to handle the response to the virus, MacGregor-Skinner said.
“Such an approach, and contact tracing in general, requires people to be open and forthright about their movements and their health, he said. Stigmatisation of patients, their families and contacts could only discourage that, so Nigerian officials sent a message to “really make them look like heroes,” MacGregor-Skinner said.
“This is the best thing people can do for Nigeria: They are going to protect and save Nigeria by being honest, by doing what they need to do, by reporting to the health commission,” he said. This made people feel like they were a part of something extremely important, he said, and also took into account real community needs. “You got real engagement and compliance from the contacts. They’re not running and hiding.”
Sawyer had come into contact with someone who ended up in Port Harcourt. That person went to a doctor who ended up dying from Ebola in August. Within a week, 70 people were being monitored. It ballooned to an additional 400 people in that one city.
Success stories of people coming through strict Ebola surveillance alive and healthy helped encourage more people to come forward, as they recognised that ending up in a contact tracer’s sights did not mean a death sentence.
The CDC also pointed to the robust public health response by Nigerian officials, who have had experience with massive public health crises in the past — namely polio in 2012 and large-scale lead poisoning in 2010.
When someone is on a contact list, that does not mean that person has to stay at home for the entire incubation period of 21 days from the last contact with someone who had Ebola. People on contact lists are not under quarantine or in isolation. They can still go to work and go on with their lives. But they should take their temperature twice a day for 21 days and check in with health workers.
The CDC recommends that people without symptoms but who have had direct contact with the bodily fluids of a person sick with Ebola be put under either conditional release, meaning that they self-monitor their health and temperature and check in daily, or controlled movement. People under controlled movement have to notify officials about any intended travel and shouldn’t use commercial planes or trains. Local public transport at use is approved on a case-by-case basis.
When symptoms do develop, that’s when the response kicks into high gear. People with Ebola are contagious only once they begin exhibiting symptoms, which include fever, severe headaches and vomiting.
While four people in Dallas are under government-ordered quarantine, which is not the norm. Those individuals “were non-compliant with the request to stay home. I don’t want to go too far beyond that,” Dallas County Judge Clay Lewis Jenkins said Thursday.
On Friday, the four people were moved to a private residence from the apartment where Duncan had been staying when he became symptomatic.
A law enforcement officer will remain with them to enforce the order, and none of the people are allowed to leave until October 19.
Duncan is the only person with an Ebola diagnosis in Dallas, and no one else is showing symptoms at the moment. But, as Nigeria knows, the work in Dallas has just begun.

Sunday 5 October 2014

Arsenal & Chelsea... let's go back to the beginning and see how it all started

Once upon a time, Arsenal played Chelsea and, more often than not, beat them. But that was before the Roman empire swept into Stamford Bridge and altered the Premier League landscape.
Instead of the fixture that Gunners fans looked forward to the most, it has become the match they must secretly dread.
It was another Bridge – Wayne – who landed the first blow on behalf of owner Roman Abramovich and announced the arrival of a new order when he grabbed an 87th minute winner to clinch a 3-2 aggregate Champions League win at Highbury in March 2004.
Wayne Bridge scores against Arsenal for Chelsea at Highbury in the Champions League back in March 2004
Wayne Bridge scores against Arsenal for Chelsea at Highbury in the Champions League back in March 2004
The arrival of Jose Mourinho and Roman Abramovich marked an end to Arsenal's victories over Chelsea
The arrival of Jose Mourinho and Roman Abramovich marked an end to Arsenal's victories over Chelsea
Mourinho: Specialist in failure comments were a consequence
Things have never been quite the same, since. And Bridge’s goal was the turning point.
Emirates supporters look away now, as a reminder of the good old days brings home how fortunes have changed in the Premier League era.
Post Roman, the teams have played 28 times. Arsenal have won just six matches in all competitions, drawn seven and lost 15.
Contrast and compare that with 1992-2003, before the Russian billionaire turned Chelsea from fancy dans to title winners.
The teams faced each other 22 times. Arsenal lost only three, won 12 and drew seven and were the undisputed kings of the capital.
Arsenal players look dejected as Chelsea celebrate their 6-0 victory in March of this year
Arsenal players look dejected as Chelsea celebrate their 6-0 victory in March of this year
It all looked so rosy, in February 2004, when Arsene Wenger’s team knocked Chelsea out of the FA Cup and then beat them 2-1 at Stamford Bridge in what was then known as the Premiership.
Prick Vieira and Edu cancelled out Eidur Gudjohnsen’s early strike while the Icelander was also sent off in the second half.
One month later the rivals met in the Champions League. The first leg was drawn 1-1 and Arsenal were over-riding favourites. Jose Reyes gave the Gunners the lead on half-time only for Frank Lampard to level the scores before Bridge had the final say.
Arsenal fans could argue that it was not in the Premier League, which is what really counts over a season.
The same could be applied to the Community Shield in 2005 when a Didier Drogba double ensured a 2-1 Chelsea win.
Kieran Gibbs is mistakenly sent off following Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain's handball on the goal-line
Kieran Gibbs is mistakenly sent off following Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain's handball on the goal-line
But later that August, Arsenal could no longer claim to be so superior as Drogba scored the only goal in a 1-0 Premier League home victory.
The return was in December the same year. Arjen Robben and Joe Cole both found the net at Highbury and Chelsea had done the double over their North London neighbours.
As far as the neutral is concerned, however, this is a match which tends to throw up lots of goals, plenty of controversy and the enduring feud between Arsene Wenger and Jose Mourinho.
Arsenal fans will not need long memories to recall a rare fine moment – the 5-3 extravaganza in October 2011 when Robin van Persie scored twice in the last five minutes to complete his hat-trick after it looked as if Juan Mata had clinched a 3-3 draw.
Then again, they will not want reminding about what happened last season. Down to ten men (even if Kieran Gibbs was sent off instead of Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain) and on the end of a 6-0 thrashing.
Will the tide turn again on Sunday? The bookies suggest not.

Arsene Wenger: Record against Jose Mourinho counts for nothing

BUSTED!! Relative Reveals Ini Edo’s Dirty Secrets Of How She Cheated -


This is not palatable to the ears at
all and it is getting messier by the day. Following the respond Nollywood actress posted on her twitter page confirming her marriage break up with her husband of 5 years and saying she never cheated on him, the relatives of her ex-husband have responded to her claims saying she is not
just a liar but also a serial cheat…with instances..
A close family source who is related to Phillip spoke to a source on the condition of anonymity:
Ini Edo should shut up about the
marriage crash because with the way she is going by trying to paint Phillip as the wrong party, we may be forced to open her can of worms and it will not be palatable to her and her career. I can tell you that Ini Edo is a serial cheat who played the field behind her husband’s back for the duration of their marriage. Is she going to deny she was dating one Island big boy whose girlfriend organized her friends to beat her up and injured
her?
Another family source pointed out thus:
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Bros, I can tell you that Ini Edo is not as innocent as she is trying to make people believe or think. We caught her on more than three occasion with three different men and she always begged us to forgive her.
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We can even mention some of the men she had affairs with including a South-South governor whose wife embarrassed her and ordered her security to send her out of the governor’s guest house in the state capital.
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She should dare us and we will mention the name of the governor on the pages of newspapers.
Another source, a close friend of Phillip also added his voice to the contentious issue:
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Did she tell you how Phillip embarrassed her in front of her people when he went to collect his bride price? He told her people the kind of adulterous daughter they have and how she had been cheating on him right from the first day they were married.
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In fact, he did not want to collect the bride price but her people begged him to collect it as that would free her to get married to another man in the future.
All calls to Ini Edo or her publicists to comment on the new allegations did not yield any positive results as their phones were switched off.

Hmmm TBT Charlie boy n Jonathan....

So somehow somehow there was a connection lmao I wonder what was the occasion. ..
What do u think ..

ALUU 4 ...remember? 2yrs today! they will always be in our hearts

Today is the 2nd year remembrance of Aluu 4 victims. Two years later and no one has paid for their brutal killing on Friday morning October 5th 2012. We are still hoping that justice will one day be served. Continue to rest in peace, Chidiaka Biringa, Lloyd Michael, Tekena Elkanah and Ugonna
Obuzor. Gone but not forgotten.

Saturday 4 October 2014

anoda benin accident same spot... are the witches fighting?

Last week we saw some James bond car accident usually seen in the movies today we are having a reoccurrence of it.
Why is this particular thing happening? Who is to blame? Benin witches or just pure coincidence?
What do u think?

na wa for us oh! ebola now bola #olodo

Well, the international network of three professionals have murdered the name "ebola" no wonder they want to come to the most populous black nation who most people though couldn't contain the virus for help..... now that's something

What do u guys think?