How We Bathed With Kerosene To Protect Ourselves From Ebola - Student

A student of Covenant Polytechnic located in Abia narrated how her mates went to the extremities in order to ward off the deadly Ebola disease.

According to Leadership,  Gift Nnenna Okonkwo explained that the scared students complied with any precautionary measure that reached them. Thus they bathed with kerosene,  and they did the same with the salt and warm water mixture.

The polytechnic student said they had to wake up early in the morning to prepare the solution as they believed it could protect them from contracting the tropical virus. Although the girl felt confused about the effectiveness of the measure, she still joined others.

Shortly after Ebola was brought to Nigeria by the Liberian-American Patrick Sawyer, people got seized with panic, which provided a good platform for rumours about the ways of preventing the virus to spread. Unfortunately such rumours could hardly be characterized as harmless.

Let’s simply recall where the “salt water” rumour originated from and how quickly it progressed. It was suggested that bathing in or drinking hot water and salt solution allowed to prevent or cure the virus. The information was passed on social media, from one person to another. As a result some people died from drinking the solution and many more were hospitalized. Soon after, Government officials had to interfere to stop the circulation of the dangerous method.

It is not a secret that people’s fears fuel these rumours. Additionally, in the absence of the approved Ebola vaccine, the emotional condition of the citizens, who feel unprotected, worsened. Some other methods making rounds in social media said that the tropical disease might be treated with hot chocolate, coffee and raw onions.

Meanwhile according to the latest update by the World Health Organization (WHO), the death toll from the EVD currently corresponds 2,296. The country affected most by the epidemic is Liberia.