Lite[r]

Author – Odunayo Areyemi

“An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure”. That could have been the starting ana if I had not had a change of mind this cold morning. Science –to me had been with us long before the beginning of humanity itself ‘archeologically’. How? Everything scientifically discovered are being discovered from what had been around before check. So, human’s evolution in psyche toward science would always be running behind the mother nature, leave it or take it. But is it not time for humans to think twice, three times –and be more critical considering the perspective from which we evaluate our resolves on scientific happenings around us? Doing this would awaken the mindfulness in us and make us to be able to prevent the worse to come rather than running around in kilter trying to find solutions –as humanity’s extinction would double in its rapid speed at happening –when the worse happens. Coronavirus and lassa fever are currently adding insult to injury, deaths in different continents as at the moment of typing this. Thousands had died, are dying and are probably to get infected. And who knows which virus is coming next? And there would definitely be more to the number of the headcount of those dead and infected released by the countries’ authority –one should know that by default even without the whistleblowers sounding whistles about the actual figure.

Coronavirus – 2019-NCoV in China and Lassa Fever in Nigeria for instance in Africa are topping the chart of killer infections in 2020 already check. The former seems to be spreading faster than the latter though. Coronavirus is coined from the Latin word ‘corona’ which means crown or halo as the shape of the virus resembles a crown. Whilst Lassa was named after the town where the case first occurred in the world in 1969, in Nigeria with its infection across West African nations estimated to 300,000 – 500, 000 with at least 5000 deaths annually (Facts Sheet, 2020). But what or who could have caused these deadly viral infections if I may ask? Even though it had been narrowed down in the course of trying to create vaccines and cure coronavirus that its root cause is the consumption of wildlife such as bats, snakes or possible leak from well-protected centre (in Wuhan,) China (Young, 2020). I would like to raise eye brow on the ‘well-protected centre’ the most as manmade deliberate or undeliberate action could have leaked the virus. And in commonality with coronavirus, lassa fever –an endemic in Nigeria, Benin, Ghana, Guinea, Liberia, Mali, Sierra Leone and Togo in currency had been traced to (the contamination with urine or feces of) infected Mastomys rats (WHO, 2020). Yet and again, I would like to raise eye brow on the ‘well-protected centre’ the most as manmade deliberate or undeliberate action could have leaked it.

Billions, if not trillions of dollars would be made by pharmaceutical industries internationally or globally considering these viruses as they are way too hard to cure. The sort of society we live in at the moment has not changed from its greedy ways. The greediness of humanity could have formed the chain reaction that led to the release of some viruses that we have learnt already worldwide. Do you know fat-pocketed companies deliberately study and build viruses? Though the former might be to understand yet it is dangerous just as the latter as they are both interwoven. Powerful people could try and understand a virus to multiply it and use the same as weapon for the sake of extortion, monetary value or other factors that could be tagged to evil mindset, greediness or hate. There are cases established validly of virus leaking before. The outbreak of SARS in 2004 in China had been traced to a leak from where it was contained (Young, 2020). Let us assume the worst of humanity again these days, ALL THIS COULD BE MANMADE trust me. These viruses are being studied and are being tested on animals such as ape, rats and all others. These animals run, bite and all that. Could it have been that one was being injected with the virus (in the course of studying or not) on purpose and sold out? There are different possibilities to the source of these killer diseases. And each could have the backing of one greedy agent for a selfish end – so, we should note and watch out!

Nonetheless, as much as I would want us all to consider things from opposing perspectives at times and not be too common, I would want to us to be wary of the potential carriers of these viral diseases. We could abstain from consuming wildlife and we would survive fine. Coronavirus for instance as reported has cross-species transmission of pathogen from snakes or bats. This means bats could be the source because snakes feed on bats. Snake being the first host of coronavirus years back, implies a snake could have bitten a bat and that bat could have then been fed on at the Wuhan market. Yet, the mystery of how a pathogen whose host was coldblooded animal could survive in a warm-blooded one remains a mystery or ‘a secret’.  Meanwhile, these wildlife, cold-blooded or warm-blooded, carries potential threats as viruses in their systems from their own wild or habitat naturally which might not multiply in their system, but on getting to us humans, their multiplicity rate would not be in 2’s or 4’s but in 100’s –the insane strength of virus. Chinese home and abroad should at the moment be wary of bat eaters around them and abstain consumption of bats. Nigerians and its sub-region states’ indigenes and non-indigenes should keep their houses clean off rats whether infected or not. If one must kill a rat, not with bare parts but with a tool and make no rooms for them in the interior part of the house. No rat-eating. For those whose businesses are about wildlife animals such as bat, snake and even rat family. Care must be taken – “prevention is better than cure”, they say.

References

Facts Sheet. (nd). National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases Division:  of High-Consequence Pathogens and Pathology (DHCPP)

Lassa fever. (2020). Lassa fever.  Retrieved on Jan/30/2020 from https://www.who.int/health-topics/lassa-fever/#tab=tab_1

Young, J. (2020). Scientists Pinpoint 2 Causes Behind China’s Deadly Coronavirus – They’re Both Shocking: Scientists identified two possible root causes of Coronavirus: the consumption of wildlife such as bats in Wuhan and potential leak of virus. Retrieved on Jan/30/2020 from https://www.ccn.com/scientists-pinpoint-2-causes-behind-chinas-deadly-coronavirus-theyre-both-shocking/