The Media, Trovan, Technology and all that ...

By Malik Mohammed

Radio sports channel, Brila FM, the brainchild of the indefatigable Larry Izamoje, is currently running a public awareness message that shows that there is only one world for “Goal” from one language group in Nigeria to the other – about 300 of them! No matter the tongue, all our languages have the same word for “goal”.
Nigerians should listen to the message, which in itself has immense entertainment value for its dramatic quality.

We are a country in which consensus on any issue is hard to achieve. It seems that each and every one of the more than 150 million people who make up its population has his/her opinion any issue at any given time.

Where the issue is clear enough for us to instantly agree on, there are professional agents of disunity to introduce extraneous factors into the equation to cause division. The prism could be that of religion or ethnicity. And before you know it, the newspapers and airwaves are awash with different interpretations.

Is the situation about to change? What has technology got to do with it?

But for the tragic dimensions of the 1996 meningitis epidemic in Kano and Pfizer’s trial of its drug Trovan, it would have been apt to say “All’s well that end’s well” to the recent pay-outs by the Meningitis Trust Board to verified participants at the Trovan trial.

Reports recently had it that compensations have been made to some qualified claimants of the Healthcare/Meningitis Trust Fund and that more beneficiaries will be announced as more DNA results are received from the testing laboratory. This seems to signal an end to the bickering over the most acceptable approach to managing the compensations. At a point, what was evidently the most efficacious option didn’t go down as the most acceptable to some stakeholders. But what no one doubted was the need for urgent implementation of the July 2009 settlement agreement between Pfizer and the Kano State government, which preferred the DNA approach.

It was always necessary to neutralize the machinations of opportunists. For example, although about 200 persons participated in the trial, some 547 people are known to have staked claims to compensation arising from the 1996 Trovan trials. The claimants offered themselves as direct parents of participants or legal guardian of participants.

If steps were not taken to forestall fraud, compensations to 547 would have significantly reduced the impact of the gesture to the actual claimants, who are about a third of this figure. It would be like an all-comers affair where all one had to do was show up and receive a slice of the largess.

Of course, the controversy over the acceptability – or otherwise – of DNA testing was always unnecessary, given that it is most reliable and internationally recognized method of genetic identity verification. What made opposition to the use of the method surprising is that the testing had been assigned to a state-of-the art laboratory.

In the end, however, sanity prevailed and claimants were educated on the purpose of the DNA test in their native language before they were taken through the rigorous process involving signatures and thumb prints to indicate consent; whereupon a simple cotton swab was used to obtain saliva samples from claimants’ mouths. These were conducted by local medical staff with knowledge of the local languages (Hausa and English).

During a discussion with some journalists who had been following the Trovan case for quite some time, I gathered that the fresh samples of cerebrospinal fluids of participants were compared with those obtained during the 1996 Trovan clinical study. Inevitably, the large number of claimants - 547 individuals – meant a longer period of DNA testing and analysis, including the Board’s review. I was gratified to know that neither Pfizer nor the Government of Kano State was vested with the responsibility for determining eligibility for compensation as that responsibility belongs to the Board.

From the commentaries one has heard and read, it appears that people are generally pleased with the outcomes of the DNA testing procedures. Considering the tragic nature of the epidemic and the long litigation coupled with our people’s belief in Destiny, I won’t be surprised if it turns out that not all the possible claimants showed up for the exercise in spite of the 547 claimants that went through the DNA test. Some religious zealots actually believe that such a payment on account of the tragic circumstances is haram.

Let me come back to the issue of technology. Considering that technology was also very critical to the conduct of the Nigerian general elections in April, even admitting that the results of the elections are being contested in court, it does seem, therefore that we are making progress somehow.

Whatever the legal issues that are been challenged about them, the 2011 elections were a marked improvement on, and significant departure from, previous elections in this country. The electoral process depended largely on technology. And given the rancor-free outcome of the use of DNA testing to verify the victims of the Trovan trial, no one is henceforth going to hold technological approaches to resolving similar issues in suspicion.

Brila FM has taught us that there is only one word for “goal”. Thanks to technology, that message is heard all over the country. In the same vein, the Meningitis Board has shown us that things can be done transparently with the use of technology to sort out the wheat from the chaff. With the state of the art medical complex at an advanced stage of construction in Kano as part of the settlement process, perhaps we shall soon be able to say “All is well that ends well.”.

• Mohammed is an Abuja-based commentator on public health issues.

POLIO IMMUNIZATION FLAG OFF IN KANO

Governor Rabi’u Musa Kwankwaso of Kano State, North-West Nigeria has disabused the minds of parents in polio endemic communities over negative perceptions about the dreaded child killer disease, saying that polio vaccines do not in any way cause infertility.

The Governor also urged parents of children under the age of five to refrain from resisting the immunization of their children.

Governor Kwankwaso was speaking at the flagging off ceremony of the 2011 fourth round of immunization Plus Days at Yan Alewa in Kumbotso Local Government Area of the state.

He expressed concern over the fresh cases of poliomyelitis recently reported in five local government areas of the state.

Our Correspondent in Kano, Enenche Akogwu reports that the immunization flag off ceremony was held in the most polio endemic community in the country, Yan Alewa in Kumbotso Local Government Area of Kano State.

The choice of Yan Alewa for the flag off ceremony of the 2011 fourth round immunization exercise was not out of place, because it is the most polio endemic community in Kano State, and by extension, the country.

The Governor, who kicked off the immunization exercise, pleaded with parents of children under the age of five to cooperate with immunization officials, adding that the state government would do anything it can to kick out the child killer disease from the state.

The Governor also emphasized the importance of cleanliness to healthy and civilized living, a realization, he explained, informed the decision of his administration to reintroduce the monthly sanitation in the state.

Traditional rulers, religious and community leaders were at the occasion to demonstrate their commitment to the fight against poliomyelitis, with each of them pledging to redouble their efforts to see to the end of the scourge in Nigeria.

The flag-off ceremony of the 2011 polio immunization exercise represents a final push to kick out polio out of Nigeria by the end of this year, and with just five months away, the realization of this tall target would require all hands on deck.

Kwankwaso told the gathering that it was unfortunate that Nigeria still featured among the four polio endemic countries in the world despite efforts by the government and international donor agencies to eradicate it.

He was particularly disturbed that polio virus was recently identified again among children in five local government areas in the state, and emphasized on the need for the people to collaborate with the state government to wipe out the disease.

Furthermore, Kwankwaso maintained that "scientific evidence has shown that the disease is not associated with genie or evil spirits and the Polio vaccine is not administered with ulterior motives. We can all see the physical damage it has done to some of our children", the governor asserted.

Reiterating his administration’s commitment to do all it can to eradicate polio, the governor pledged that the State government will give all the logistical and financial support toward achieving the set goals.

In a speech on the occasion, the Emir of Kano, Alhaji Ado Bayero was who represented by the district head of Ajingi, Sarkin Yakin Kano, Alhaji Wada Aliyu Gaya noted that diseases, especially those affecting children can be prevented by inoculation, hence the need for husbands to allow their wives to make available their children for routine immunization.

The National Primary Healthcare Development Agency representative, Dr. Adamu Nuhu and the representative of international donor agencies, Dr. Sulaiman Abdullahi restated the willingness of the agency to partner with the state government to safe guard the lives of children in the state.
- Channels TV Nigeria
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