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Ebola Panic Worse Than Death In Katsina By Ahmed Isyaku
The news of the new salt cure is now widely spreading like a wild fire , in every nook and cranny, and perhaps spreading more widely than the disease itself. The myth about bitter kola cure of ebola has now been debunked, having been no scientific evidence to prove the claim.
Here is the new rumour again, which rhymes with humour "the salt cure" of the ugly disease, or as how one of my friends (Shamsu Jamilu Jirgi) was jubilant at the new discovery in the kitchen to say "Happy Salt Day!"
Anticipation of death is worse than the death itself. As panic grows, people naturally tend to conciously or subconsciously seek for salvation or take refuge in anything blindly , or even do any thing they believe the least can help them out from the shadows of death in desperation, even if they know they have no certainty on the potency of the things they use for protection. This is what one of my friends (Abdullahi Yahya Na'isa) metaphorically sees as "comic relief". This phenomenon ,is part of the human psychological defence mechanism, I believe.
In Katsina State of Nigeria, the fear of ebola is worse than death to an old lady in my neighbourhood, though the news of its spread in North has not been reported yet. In my neighbourhood Tudun-lihida , within Katsina metropolis, Hajiya Hauwa, an old woman and a hypertension patient with age about 70, was so terrified by the news of the impending death of ebola. She took high concentration of "salted water" just to free herself from the clutches of ebola death. The use of salted water in many homes is now the new preventive measure purported to save lives from ebola the monster, especially if one drinks and takes bath with the salted water everyday. It is greatly saddening that people are being misinformed especially when you see the old and the young in jubilation of the new found false kitchen cure - my heart sinks. When I warned the old woman that it is dangerous especially for a patient with hypertension to take salt in such a manner , she reacted and said, "I'd rather die of high blood pressure than a cursed death which will not let my children and people touch me or burry me because of fear of infecting them."
Apparently, in Kaduna, salt killed two people before even their nightmare ebola come to claim them. Many people with unprecedented medical history of hypertension have now been diagnosed to have BP because of the plenty salt water they take fight impending fear ebola epidemic.
Ebola is true and deadly, but frankly speaking, the news of its spread in Nigeria is over- exaggerated , causing worse panic that makes people employ false psychological defense mechanism ignorantly, consciously or subconsciously. People should rather be educated on the epidemic and its preventive measures. Governments and international community should hurry up in their efforts of finding a cure to contain the disease before it claims more thousand previous lives , as we learn that there is a cure being developed. I beseech Almighty God, the Omnipotent to eraze this deadly disease and all the other hideous diseases on earth. |