An Enemy To Be Feared
AN ENEMY TO BE FEARED
It is sometimes funny how we take the things around us for granted, like going out, entering a public transport, resting on a wall, meeting up with family and friends and even touching our own face. We take these things and many more for granted. Not because we don’t like it but because we see it as the norm and don’t even see it changing or stopping. Have you ever thought about what life would be like if you had to talk to people only via the internet or through a glass partition separating you with face to face interaction reduced to the barest minimum? Or have you thought about what life would be like if surfaces such as walls, banisters, railings, etc. are deemed too dangerous to touch. Or maybe you go to work and on getting to your house, your spouse is denying you admission into your own home and not because he/she doesn’t love you but because you have been exposed and you are therefore a danger to everyone in that house. I could go on and on with a list like this but what’s the point? Am sure you, my dear reader, have already experienced or currently experiencing something similar to the aforementioned.
Now, why do I write this? Why bother putting this down for people to read? Before I answer those questions, let me first give you a background story.
In December of 2019, a new virus was reported in China. A virus that causes respiratory diseases similar to the SERS and MERS epidemic of previous years. Come January 2020, I and everyone else after our new year celebrations and resolution making were over, resumed our normal businesses of going to work or whatever it is we are doing whilst simultaneously trying to achieve our goals.
I remember how me and my new fiancé made plans on how we are going to get married and the things we needed to get sorted out before we got married. We had decided to pool resources to get a new house and other things before the marriage. And that is just one person, think of the numerous people who have made different plans too. The billions of humans making billions upon billions of plans.
By late January, the virus in China had spread from China to other countries and China declared an epidemic of an unknown virus. The virus would later be known as Corona Virus (named after a family of corona viruses) or more accurately Covid 19. The virus caused respiratory like symptoms and if not adequately treated, could lead to death.
Being a novel virus, very little information was known about it but as the days went by and as the number of cases around the world grew, more and more information were discovered but even yet, these were not enough. The virus could spread through the fluid of an infected person to uninfected persons.
When an infected coughs or just touches any surface, he/she could leave the virus on said surface and anyone touching that same surface could become infected.
There were rumours and then they were facts. Being a person who liked to be very thorough about things, I delved into the internet, trying to glean as much information as I could and the more I learned the more worried I became. I saw as a lot of people dismissed the virus, saying since “it was made in China, it wouldn’t last long”. I read as others claimed it wasn’t that big a deal and that the media was just building mountains out of a mole hill. And I read as majority of the population believed it would be over soon.
As much as these news and rumours and so called facts spread over the internet, I foresaw a big problem coming. Covid 19 is a novel virus and that means little information is known about it, but at least a few facts were known. For every 100 reported case, there would be at about 1,000 yet-to-be reported cases. It spread at an alarming rate and people with underlying health issues and the elderly suffered a whole lot of it.
Though with a low mortality rate, it spread faster than people could imagine and by March of 2020, countries around the world were closing off their borders and placing whole cities and states under quarantine.
By the time the first index case would be reported in Nigeria, things around the world were just passing the region of bad and gradually taking up points around the borders of ‘worse’. My finance being a nurse did her own research and together we came to a few conclusions, our fellow countrymen aren’t taking the disease serious, we will need to stock up on supplies because if there is one case, there are potentially 10 yet-to-be confirmed cases, we had to start practicing social distance and avoid touch our faces as much as possible. Also, we had reason to believe there were quite a handful of people who will be infected and cured without ever realising they were infected in the first place but they could have potentially infected others.
Fast forward to a few weeks after and people who bothered to know about Covid 19 weren’t really laughing as much. But still, there were a few nutcases who attributed the disease to the latest in Information Technology: 5G network. I wondered how people would believe that radio waves could emit high levels of radiation to cause a disease. Wireless network relies on radio waves to work and a little known fact is that the radiation from the sun was far more harmful than radio waves could be.
Amidst all these, the cases began to steadily rise and it didn’t take long for the government to declare a 14-day quarantine. 14-days being the average time of which an infected person will begin to show symptoms. Of course, Nigeria wasn’t the only one quarantining its states, countries all around the world were doing same and the Italians were taking a serious beating from the virus, with the number of infected daily as high as 10,000 and number of deaths as high as a 700. In order to grasp this reality; 700 dead people means 700 families mourning the loss of their loved ones.
The very first day a case of Covid-19 was reported in the hospital my fiancé worked, she called to tell me she wouldn’t be coming home. Though, the reader might see this as over-reacting but she was just outright scared and being a person of high empathy, she was worried she might infect others if she is infected. Though, it was the first day and she wasn’t the one who attended to the infected person.
A patient had been brought in that day, complaining of severe headache and mild fever among other symptoms. The patient had been asked if he had recently arrived from Europe or undertaken any travel abroad. His answer was ‘no’ but the attending doctor had his doubts, so he told the nurses to keep the patient in a secure location and NCDC to be called.
On the arrival of the NCDC’s official, a test was carried out and thanks to the rapid advancement in test kits, results were out in a few hours. The patient tested positive to Covid-19 and the NCDC officials took up the matter. Further investigation revealed that the patient had recently arrived the country from Spain and had somehow managed to boycott the quarantine set up in the airport.
The whole hospital was quarantined and people were advised to not leave the hospital; staffs and patients alike and then began the contact tracing.
Of course, not everyone listened as some snuck out because they believed themselves to be un-infected. If only some of them had listened, the perhaps thing wouldn’t have gotten worse in my state.
When my finance called to say she wouldn’t come home until the 14-day period was over, I got scared. I mean, I had read about this disease happening to other people but never had it come so close to me and now I was facing the reality of it. My brain began a series of logical reasoning, I could tell her to sneak out of the hospital and come home but what if she was infected already, she would end up spreading the virus even more. Though she hadn’t attended to the patient, that doesn’t mean she wasn’t potentially infected but I love her and will I just leave her to the reasoning of a virus to decide whether to kill her or let her live? I can’t abandon her, I have to get her out of there because she could theoretically be uninfected yet and the longer she stays there, the higher the chances of she getting infected but knowing her, she wouldn’t listen to me. She would rather take that risk of getting the infection if uninfected if it means stopping the virus from spreading. The more I thought about it, the more I saw it as a Schrödinger disease scenario. Unless observed to test positive of the virus, she is negative. So, she was positive and negative at the same time.
I kept thinking. Chloroquine had been theorised to cure the virus in some people and we have that plus other supplies at home, I could go and take her in my car, bring her home and Isolate her in the bedroom whilst taking care of her as much as I can and being a nurse, she would be able to offer advice on what to do but it had its risks too. We live in a rented suite of a 3-storied building and ours was located on the second floor. She could infect others unknowingly through the water pipes connected around the house or through other means. It sound’s crazy but it did happen in a building in China.
But she isn’t exactly infected right, I could risk getting her out of there. But what if she is infected already. What if she didn’t want to come with me, what if she gets infected and dies? Too many ‘what ifs’ were running amok in my head.
So, I asked if she was sure she wanted to stay, I told her about my thoughts and she listened through it all. She told me she had thought of that too, but the risk of her infecting others was far greater and her code of conduct as a nurse and as a human being forbids her to cause harm to innocents, either directly or indirectly. She finished by saying everything was going to be alright.
I told her I was coming to the hospital and hung up before she could protest. I grabbed my car keys, a face mask, a hand sanitizer and headed out.
I got to the hospital after about 45 minutes of driving. On getting there, the hospital’s entrance had been cordoned off and people could be seen milling around. I found a parking spot in a street close to the hospital and made my way to the entrance, taking special care to avoid getting too close to anyone or touching anybody.
At the entrance, I was denied entrance and had to call my fiancé. When she got out, she looked at me over the distance, she couldn’t get too close to me, not even enough close to the gate. She smiled and said she knew I wouldn’t listen but now am here, what was my plan. I said, pretty much shoot my way through the entrance and get her out of there. We made small talk for a few minutes more and she more or less threatened me before I could leave.
I am not going to lie, I was scared that day, very scared I might lose her, very scared about what she would go through if she ever tested positive.
On my way home, I called her parents and gave them an update of what was happening, it took me about 15 minutes to allay their fears that she hadn’t been tested yet and as such, nothing is known yet. I called a few of my friends and my parents too. Updating them of the happenings.
By the next day, the government declared a curfew on the neighbourhood where the hospital was located and in about a week, it was quarantined. That same week, she tested positive to Covid-19. My fears skyrocketed and began to walk around me.
She took the news well, I didn’t and so did her family. We were all scared but she kept allaying our fears telling us she was going to be fine. We needn’t worry about her.
I regularly made trips to the hospital and had to talk to her through a screen in another room. To enter and leave the hospital required its own procedures. I stripped to my boxers at a checkpoint and was sprayed with a sanitizer and after that, I had to don a hazmat suit. I then had to proceed to the isolation chamber and talked through a glass partition. This went on for a few days until things took a turn for the worse, her condition changed from mild to critical and she had to be put on a ventilator. At this point, my fears weren’t walking around, they were playing hide and seek around me.
She wasn’t the only one though, there were others too whose condition were critical.
I prayed to God like I never did before. Me, her family and well-wishers prayed together through online conference calls. On the fourth day of the critical phase, her condition changed from critical to mild and she was put off the ventilator. She was responding to treatment and her immune system was doing its best to combat the virus.
At this point, essential staffs were the only one allowed in the hospital but the hospital still continued to use video calls to allow families communicate with the people there.
Then one day, while we were talking, she asked me a question, “Do you remember how we met?” she asked.
I told her I still do. Then she proceeded to recount the happenings of that day to me.
I was driving home from work that day, when I branched a filling station to fill up my tank. While at the filling station, a guy in a White Lexus RX 350 was shouting at his occupant, a young lady. The lady must have done something to piss him off that much I thought. The guy was raving and ranting and then suddenly, he got down, stomped to the passenger side, opened the door and dragged the lady out. At that point, I couldn’t take it went over to him, likewise a few concerned citizens. But the guy wouldn’t listen to us, he kept shouting at the young lady and all the while, she kept quiet. What I was able to piece together though, the young lady was his sister and she was pregnant for some guy.
This went on for a while, me and others trying to calm the guy down, the guy refusing to be calm and then he did something stupid, he slapped the lady across the face. She reeled back from the shock but still said nothing. People quickly held on to the guy, trying to placate him not to hit a lady but not me. I walked over to him and gave him a right cross across his jaw. He looked stunned for a minute and then angrily pushed the people holding him away and charged at me, another stupid move. I back-stepped and sent my left hand in a jab that hit is nose, in the split moment that he was stunned, I charged at him, carried him across the midsection and slammed him into his car. People quickly gathered around us and held us at bay. Few minutes later and calm was restored. I apologised for punching him but told him I wouldn’t hesitate to repeat it if he touched the lady again. Long story short, things worked out as best as we could and the whole matter was solved right there and then, including the young lady’s pregnancy. I did a little follow-up though, to be sure he wasn’t beating the lady and was satisfied with my findings. The lady still keeps in touch with me sometimes and regularly joined us in our live prayer sessions.
My finance happened to be among the concerned citizens and somehow after the scene, we got to talking and phone numbers were exchanged and then here we are today.
After she narrated, she smiled at me and said she was happy to have been a part of my life. At this junction, I told her that was starting to sound dark and morbid and she should forget about it. She coughed for some time and told me she was just happy and that if anything should ever happen to her. I didn’t let her finish up the statement because I cut her off and told her she was fine already and that she needed a little sleep. She said okay and added that she loved me, I told her I love her too and we bid each other bye.
Sadly, that was the last time I talked to her. I was later notified by the hospital that she had gone to sleep and then started to cough. The cough had escalated quickly and she was having difficulty breathing, her temperature had gone through the roof, she was quickly put on a ventilator but it was a waste of time, she died that very day.
To say I was hurt would be an understatement. I felt lost, felt directionless, felt hollow, felt mad, felt sad, felt a million emotions driving around in my head. I should never have let her go to work that day. I should have gone to sneak her out of the hospital when the case was discovered. I should have done a million things but none of that matters anymore.
Her remains were cremated as per her wish and the ashes were strewn into the wind. That was what she had wanted and bizarre though it might sound to some people in this part of the world, it was her wish and it was granted.
People should take this virus serious and our health professionals should be commended worldwide. They take care of infected people at the risk of their own lives. They are the heroes of these dark days we currently live in.
I am just one person out of thousands of families that have felt the wrath of this unseen enemy. An enemy that does not discriminate, an enemy that kills anyone it wishes, an enemy that no current weapon fashioned or designed by any nation can currently kill. This enemy continues to kill and will continue if we don’t stop it in its tracks.
Currently, there are over 400,000 infected people world-wide and if what I know about this virus still holds true, at least four million people could become infected in just a few months.
People should maintain social distance and sanitise your hands as much as possible. Avoid touching your face with your hands. Stay at home unless you absolutely have no choice. Read more about the virus on official websites and not rumour-mongering blogs. We should follow the rules as laid down by the health professionals and follow with as much reverence that we give our religion.
I post this, not to solicit for pity but to let people know this virus is real and it causes enormous pain. The pain will be felt by both the infected and the family of the infected.
As of yesterday, I had started coughing. As of this morning, I was having difficulty breathing and I have had to call the NCDC toll number to notify them. I have been thinking about the last few weeks and where possibly I could have become infected, and that is if I am infected but I don’t know yet. If the test turns out to be positive, I have already compiled a list of the places I have been to in the past couple of weeks and I hope this can help the NCDC. Although, I pray to God that I am not infected, I can’t take the chance of infecting other people.
While I will ask you to please pray for me, I must also point out that you do your best to stay safe.
#Staysafe
- Albert Bankole
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