The Pandemic
History has bookmarked from ancient times, alteration of normalcy in living as seen in religious text, Egyptian papyrus, and many other records for distinguishing these eras. The world has received various waves of pandemics over decades, centuries and millennia; some being conquered permanently like the Infectious disease small pox and others still under research.
The appalling situation about this contagious diseases that spread worldwide(the pandemic) is that, they are never anticipated hence humans fall at the dilemma of trying to resolve this crisis with several deaths as seen in different eras from the bubonic plague, the black death, Spanish flu and in most recent times, the SARS-COV 2 virus, commonly known as the Corona virus.
In previous pandemic eras, developed societies had better measures to contain or completely eradicate the contagion with the advancement of medicine implemented easily to save lives and in earlier times, extreme methods such as segregation of infected people as seen with leprosy. Until the year 2020, no one ever envisaged history repeating itself with the pace of evolution of humankind particularly in advanced and developed countries. The epicentre of the virus in Wuhan, China, were the virus was birthed, happened in 2019. It was shortly after declared a global pandemic in March 11, 2020 by the World Health Organisation(W.H.O) due to it's unrestricted global spread. The wave of the virus didn't exempt any continent, and presently curbing the virus hasn't been an easy task as it involves humans distancing themselves. Only few countries have been successful containing it.
The African continent was not excluded from the spread but we have been lucky to have fewer mortalities as compared to other continents that were greatly affected by the virus. In Nigeria, despite the low mortality rate, the economy was greatly threatened by the pandemic as importation and funding of large infrastructural projects were on halt due to the effect of the pandemic in China. Apparently, China is one of Nigeria's biggest trading partners and this affected a lot of businesses in the country.
Social distancing is one of a set of measures for reducing the spread of the virus in affected communities Means of livelihood were put on hold and many workers in private enterprises were laid off. It's so sad that the alternative weren't as favourable; choosing between curbing the spread or finding one's daily sustenance. It was on record during the phases of strict lockdown that several robberies were took place in popular towns in Nigeria. Curfew set even with lockdown did not deter hoodlums. More shocking was that citizens were exploited by those put in place to control or protect communities.
The turbulent effect of the pandemic in Nigeria was certainly a contrast compared to other countries. Rather than high number of fatalities, systemic failings such as inadequate healthcare in addition to poor urban planning and transport networks contributed to a rapid short down of the economy. The declining price of oil, the countries major source of income, coinciding with the pandemic further aggravated the impact. In cases as this were there is a global threat, the Nigerian economy has been demonstrably susceptible. This further reinforces an urgent need for diversification of the economy.
Despite the various economic effects of the pandemic on Nigerians and the relatively low mortality rate from the virus compared with other countries, the country has also been battling other resident diseases such as lassa fever reported on 20 February, 2020. Several outbreaks of diseases such as Ebola, yellow fever, monkey pox and others, have affected Nigeria and the subregion in recent years. There have also been some localised illnesses claiming the lives of several Nigerians. Advances in medicine providing treatments for diseases such as malaria, has done little to prevent Nigerians from succumbing from such illnesses.
The effect of the pandemic is gradually subsiding in other countries as compared to its onset were all the reports of daily deaths exceeded thousands. There are several reports of research for vaccines to prevent or mitigate the virus hoping this would bring an end to this pandemic. History has shown that with a new day, comes a new chapter of knowledge unfolded, so, our level of preparedness is never truly at it's peak. Every country of the world was affected in it's own way by the pandemic and everyone has an experience to share although some are completely different from others but still affected one way or the other.
Tega is an undergraduate student of Nursing in Delta State University, Nigeria
