What's New In W. Africa (Nigeria)
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SirK, you're right. Port Harcourt and Lagor are just run on the basis of cronyism now, harking back to stories of the worst days of Bristow many years ago. How is this once mighty company fallen? 
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The Economic Effects of Ebola on West Africa's Economies
It's not just the cost in human terms, but the long term economic effects on this region which are now beginning to show according to an article in Foreign Policy.
The death toll in the worst Ebola outbreak in history topped more than 1,200 as of Tuesday, according to the World Health Organization. The good news is that, for now, new cases appear to be limited to Guinea, Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Nigeria. The bad news is that even if the outbreak doesn't spread beyond West Africa, the economic and political fallout in this fragile part of the world will likely last years, experts said.
The outbreak is hitting some of the poorest and most politically unstable countries on Earth. Endemic public health problems besides Ebola afflict the region. Infectious diseases, including polio, which has yet to be eradicated in Nigeria, plague the area. A 2009 study by Oxfam found that illiteracy rates in West Africa are the highest in the world. The region is also dealing with the threat from Islamic extremism, most notably Boko Haram in Nigeria. Sierra Leone and Liberia, racked by years of civil war, are trying to transition from post-conflict societies to stable government.
The outbreak comes at an inopportune time for the region. Prior to the outbreak, the Nigerian economy was being celebrated as the largest in Africa, with a GDP of $510 billion, compared with second-place South Africa, with a GDP of $353 billion. Sierra Leone is attempting to draw foreign investment to its diamond industry and saw its GDP grow 20.1 percent from 2012 to 2013. In 2013, Guinea's GDP grew a modest 2 percent.
All of these positives are now overshadowed by the bleak prediction of Ebola's ramifications in the region. The World Bank estimates that Guinea's GDP will shrink between 3.5 and 4.5 percent this year as Ebola roils the agricultural sector and discourages regional trade. Liberia's finance minister, Amara Konneh, lowered the country's GDP estimates by 5.9 percent because of the outbreak. Bismarck Rewane, CEO of the Financial Derivatives Company, a Lagos-based financial advisory and research firm that manages $18 million in assets, told CNBC Africa on Monday, Aug. 18, that Nigeria could lose at least $3.5 billion of its $510 billion GDP. Moody's has already warned that the virus could hinder the region's energy sector.
Matt Robinson, senior credit officer at Moody's in London, wrote last week that the Ebola pandemic would bring "significant economic" disruptions. "If a significant outbreak emerges in the Nigerian capital of Lagos, the consequences for the West African oil and gas industry would be considerable," his note read. "Any material decline in production would quickly translate into economic and fiscal deterioration."
The total economic consequences won't be known until the outbreak truly subsides. If history is any indication, the blow is likely to be enormous and disproportionate to the death toll. For instance, the 2003 SARS outbreak, which killed 800 people, inflicted some $50 billion in damages to the global economy, according to the Economist. Ebola could be even worse.
Steve Hanke, a professor of applied economics at Johns Hopkins University who closely tracks global instability, said the pandemic could grind regional commerce to a halt. That, combined with concerns about those governments' ability to prevent Ebola from hindering regional commerce, threatens to derail the area's recent progress.
"If the outbreak keeps going, it could be devastating," Hanke told Foreign Policy. "The one thing that keeps things going is private trade and commerce. If you start shutting that down, the economic impacts could be enormous."
This holds true for Nigeria, whose economy stands to shrink by less than 1 percent because of the outbreak. David Fidler, an associate fellow at the Center on Global Health Security at London's Chatham House, said that even a small economic disruption in a country as fragile as Nigeria could have far-reaching effects on Nigeria's travel, agricultural, and energy sectors. According to the International Monetary Fund, the energy sector accounts for 96 percent of Nigeria's export revenue.
"The spread into Nigeria is bad news," he said. "It creates the perception … that their government, the economy, and society lack sustainable capacity to engage in economic activity, to usefully take in investment."
Fidler said the government's struggles to contain the Ebola outbreak, which has infected 15 people and killed four people there, could lead some investors to conclude that the country isn't a safe place for their money. Nigeria has seen its GDP growth rate increase from 3.64 percent in the first quarter of 2013 to 6.77 percent in the same quarter of 2014, but Ebola -- along with the Boko Haram threat -- could lead to a slowdown.
"This is not what you want on a brochure asking people to come do business," Fidler said.
Bongo Adi, a professor of business at the Lagos Business School, told Foreign Policy that the Nigerian business community and the general public are gripped by fear. He said that Nigerian consumer demand, which he estimates already dropped 3.4 percent this year because of the Boko Haram crisis, is "expected to fall further."
Adi added that the country's paranoid response to the outbreak is only making matters worse. Nigerian social media has spread rumors of the effectiveness of consuming a saltwater drink known as the "blood of Christ" to prevent the disease. Government officials have been just as bad: Last week, Nigeria's health minister was forced to recant a claim he made on national television that there was a miracle cure for Ebola circulating through the Nigerian diaspora.
"Perhaps worse than the real Ebola epidemic, is the swath of … rumors that have grown out of it," Adi said.
Further complicating matters is Nigeria's overpopulation, especially in and around Lagos -- where some 21 million people live -- and in the Niger Delta, the country's oil-producing region. In both places, too many people and poor sanitation have allowed diseases largely eradicated in less crowded living conditions to thrive.
"We are talking about environments where diseases such as typhoid and cholera -- all diseases borne via the food and water chain -- are still endemic," Adi added. "In the event that [Ebola] makes it into the food chain -- a very likely scenario given the level of infrastructure decay, poor sanitation awareness, and unhygienic practices -- the damage would expectedly be of colossal proportions."
According to Chatham House's Fidler, combating sophisticated medical problems like Ebola in West Africa could make attracting foreign investment even more difficult. This would continue a troubling trend for the region; according to the 2013 World Investment Report by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, direct foreign investment into West Africa fell by 5 percent in 2013, from $17.6 billion to $16.8 billion.
"There are wider multiplier effects" in post-conflict countries, he said, referring to weak political institutions, public health infrastructure, and corrupt and inept militaries. "It just feeds stereotypes about African countries not being able to tend to their own affairs."
The outbreak is hitting some of the poorest and most politically unstable countries on Earth. Endemic public health problems besides Ebola afflict the region. Infectious diseases, including polio, which has yet to be eradicated in Nigeria, plague the area. A 2009 study by Oxfam found that illiteracy rates in West Africa are the highest in the world. The region is also dealing with the threat from Islamic extremism, most notably Boko Haram in Nigeria. Sierra Leone and Liberia, racked by years of civil war, are trying to transition from post-conflict societies to stable government.
The outbreak comes at an inopportune time for the region. Prior to the outbreak, the Nigerian economy was being celebrated as the largest in Africa, with a GDP of $510 billion, compared with second-place South Africa, with a GDP of $353 billion. Sierra Leone is attempting to draw foreign investment to its diamond industry and saw its GDP grow 20.1 percent from 2012 to 2013. In 2013, Guinea's GDP grew a modest 2 percent.
All of these positives are now overshadowed by the bleak prediction of Ebola's ramifications in the region. The World Bank estimates that Guinea's GDP will shrink between 3.5 and 4.5 percent this year as Ebola roils the agricultural sector and discourages regional trade. Liberia's finance minister, Amara Konneh, lowered the country's GDP estimates by 5.9 percent because of the outbreak. Bismarck Rewane, CEO of the Financial Derivatives Company, a Lagos-based financial advisory and research firm that manages $18 million in assets, told CNBC Africa on Monday, Aug. 18, that Nigeria could lose at least $3.5 billion of its $510 billion GDP. Moody's has already warned that the virus could hinder the region's energy sector.
Matt Robinson, senior credit officer at Moody's in London, wrote last week that the Ebola pandemic would bring "significant economic" disruptions. "If a significant outbreak emerges in the Nigerian capital of Lagos, the consequences for the West African oil and gas industry would be considerable," his note read. "Any material decline in production would quickly translate into economic and fiscal deterioration."
The total economic consequences won't be known until the outbreak truly subsides. If history is any indication, the blow is likely to be enormous and disproportionate to the death toll. For instance, the 2003 SARS outbreak, which killed 800 people, inflicted some $50 billion in damages to the global economy, according to the Economist. Ebola could be even worse.
Steve Hanke, a professor of applied economics at Johns Hopkins University who closely tracks global instability, said the pandemic could grind regional commerce to a halt. That, combined with concerns about those governments' ability to prevent Ebola from hindering regional commerce, threatens to derail the area's recent progress.
"If the outbreak keeps going, it could be devastating," Hanke told Foreign Policy. "The one thing that keeps things going is private trade and commerce. If you start shutting that down, the economic impacts could be enormous."
This holds true for Nigeria, whose economy stands to shrink by less than 1 percent because of the outbreak. David Fidler, an associate fellow at the Center on Global Health Security at London's Chatham House, said that even a small economic disruption in a country as fragile as Nigeria could have far-reaching effects on Nigeria's travel, agricultural, and energy sectors. According to the International Monetary Fund, the energy sector accounts for 96 percent of Nigeria's export revenue.
"The spread into Nigeria is bad news," he said. "It creates the perception … that their government, the economy, and society lack sustainable capacity to engage in economic activity, to usefully take in investment."
Fidler said the government's struggles to contain the Ebola outbreak, which has infected 15 people and killed four people there, could lead some investors to conclude that the country isn't a safe place for their money. Nigeria has seen its GDP growth rate increase from 3.64 percent in the first quarter of 2013 to 6.77 percent in the same quarter of 2014, but Ebola -- along with the Boko Haram threat -- could lead to a slowdown.
"This is not what you want on a brochure asking people to come do business," Fidler said.
Bongo Adi, a professor of business at the Lagos Business School, told Foreign Policy that the Nigerian business community and the general public are gripped by fear. He said that Nigerian consumer demand, which he estimates already dropped 3.4 percent this year because of the Boko Haram crisis, is "expected to fall further."
Adi added that the country's paranoid response to the outbreak is only making matters worse. Nigerian social media has spread rumors of the effectiveness of consuming a saltwater drink known as the "blood of Christ" to prevent the disease. Government officials have been just as bad: Last week, Nigeria's health minister was forced to recant a claim he made on national television that there was a miracle cure for Ebola circulating through the Nigerian diaspora.
"Perhaps worse than the real Ebola epidemic, is the swath of … rumors that have grown out of it," Adi said.
Further complicating matters is Nigeria's overpopulation, especially in and around Lagos -- where some 21 million people live -- and in the Niger Delta, the country's oil-producing region. In both places, too many people and poor sanitation have allowed diseases largely eradicated in less crowded living conditions to thrive.
"We are talking about environments where diseases such as typhoid and cholera -- all diseases borne via the food and water chain -- are still endemic," Adi added. "In the event that [Ebola] makes it into the food chain -- a very likely scenario given the level of infrastructure decay, poor sanitation awareness, and unhygienic practices -- the damage would expectedly be of colossal proportions."
According to Chatham House's Fidler, combating sophisticated medical problems like Ebola in West Africa could make attracting foreign investment even more difficult. This would continue a troubling trend for the region; according to the 2013 World Investment Report by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, direct foreign investment into West Africa fell by 5 percent in 2013, from $17.6 billion to $16.8 billion.
"There are wider multiplier effects" in post-conflict countries, he said, referring to weak political institutions, public health infrastructure, and corrupt and inept militaries. "It just feeds stereotypes about African countries not being able to tend to their own affairs."
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UL,
Not heard anything except for C de M being binned - last of a long line of people that's happened to.
I've heard more about the culling of pilots at Bristow with the Super Pumas being disposed of next month.
Not heard anything except for C de M being binned - last of a long line of people that's happened to.
I've heard more about the culling of pilots at Bristow with the Super Pumas being disposed of next month.
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Yep the culling is going on there mr c d m was let go, and some new pilots that have only just about to get on line, also admin and others in a mass cost cutting exercise. I was one of them, waiting to go back on tour, no email to say I was terminated, no response from them, looks like I will not be paid either. Such professionals....
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Fluffy
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'The Centre of Excellence' has had a bad reputation for years for not paying people who leave or are 'let go' 
. There have been many warnings about them on this forum before, but people always think they'll get better and it can't happen to them. It still does and it always will with that company. They must owe hundreds of thousands of dollars to people who were silly enough to believe they could beat the system, but Aderemi Makanjuola didn't make it to the Forbes list of 'Ten Nigerian Multi-Millionaires You've Never Heard Of', by being generous with his money.
Bristow is getting worse too. Polo Suites closed and that had possibly the best accommodation in Port Harcourt. With the 332s going at least 4 pilots being laid off. Still no new HoFO or Training Manager so amazed they can even maintain their AOC.
Aero seems to be going down the tubes. Their GM has already deserted the sinking ship for a new job flying a new AW139 in Benin Republic. I heard NNPC may be selling their helicopters, so not much work left for Aero.
PAAN have not replaced their 2 base managers who stepped down. The Head of Flight Ops and his deputy will now take over those jobs as well.
After CHC came back in and chose a new partner, it may be that they'll be the only company worth working for here any more. Though with their recent IPO having raised only $300 million of the cash they needed, leaving First Reserve Corporation only 29% of the company and private equity firm Clayton, Dubilier & Rice now owning 45% after their purchase of $500 million worth of shares, nobody really knows what will happen to them in the next couple of years,
It looks as if there may be big changes here during the next 18 months - probably not for the better
. There have been many warnings about them on this forum before, but people always think they'll get better and it can't happen to them. It still does and it always will with that company. They must owe hundreds of thousands of dollars to people who were silly enough to believe they could beat the system, but Aderemi Makanjuola didn't make it to the Forbes list of 'Ten Nigerian Multi-Millionaires You've Never Heard Of', by being generous with his money.Bristow is getting worse too. Polo Suites closed and that had possibly the best accommodation in Port Harcourt. With the 332s going at least 4 pilots being laid off. Still no new HoFO or Training Manager so amazed they can even maintain their AOC.
Aero seems to be going down the tubes. Their GM has already deserted the sinking ship for a new job flying a new AW139 in Benin Republic. I heard NNPC may be selling their helicopters, so not much work left for Aero.
PAAN have not replaced their 2 base managers who stepped down. The Head of Flight Ops and his deputy will now take over those jobs as well.
After CHC came back in and chose a new partner, it may be that they'll be the only company worth working for here any more. Though with their recent IPO having raised only $300 million of the cash they needed, leaving First Reserve Corporation only 29% of the company and private equity firm Clayton, Dubilier & Rice now owning 45% after their purchase of $500 million worth of shares, nobody really knows what will happen to them in the next couple of years,
It looks as if there may be big changes here during the next 18 months - probably not for the better
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Captain abandons ship at first sign of trouble
Well folks, it‘s official. Pretty much since the Ebola outbreak started in Nigeria, Bristow Helicopter‘s GM in Nigeria Akin Oni has left the country and is MIA.
This reminds me of when The Costa Concordia, a big cruise ship, was sinking just off the coast of Italy a couple of years ago and the "captain", a Mr Schettino, was the first one to abandon the ship.
This reminds me of when The Costa Concordia, a big cruise ship, was sinking just off the coast of Italy a couple of years ago and the "captain", a Mr Schettino, was the first one to abandon the ship.
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MD/Missing in Action
Does it matter if AO is away playing golf in Houston with BC if OO has his hands on the day-to-day tiller?
They could always insert HW if his health continues to improve!
If only we knew the "good old days" ended in 2007 with gun-fire in Eket; no more half-days, golf, or bush-bar stopping on the way home from QIT by taxi.
The new HoFO arrives from Alaska as DD slides out the door same time this month; another typical shabby hand-over!
(Chinese curse - May we live in interesting times)
They could always insert HW if his health continues to improve!
If only we knew the "good old days" ended in 2007 with gun-fire in Eket; no more half-days, golf, or bush-bar stopping on the way home from QIT by taxi.
The new HoFO arrives from Alaska as DD slides out the door same time this month; another typical shabby hand-over!
(Chinese curse - May we live in interesting times)
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Ebola Outbreak May be Even Bigger
According to the WHO, 'shadow zones' may be concealing the true magnitude of the Ebola outbreak in West Africa.
The magnitude of the world's worst Ebola outbreak, especially in Liberia and Sierra Leone, has been concealed by families hiding infected loved ones in their homes and the existence of "shadow zones" that medics cannot enter, the World Health Organisation (WHO) said on Friday.
The WHO's warning came as it announced that Ebola epidemic in West Africa has led to 1,427 deaths out of 2,615 known cases including two new cases reported in Nigeria.
The UN health agency issued a situation assessment detailing why the outbreak in West Africa had been underestimated, following criticism that it had moved too slowly to contain the killer virus, now spreading out of control.
"Many families hide infected loved ones in their homes. As Ebola has no cure, some believe infected loved ones will be more comfortable dying at home," the WHO statement said.
Others, it added, deny that a patient has Ebola and believe that care in an isolation ward - viewed as an incubator of the disease - will lead to infection and certain death. "Most fear the stigma and social rejection that come to patients and families when a diagnosis of Ebola is confirmed."
"These are fast-moving outbreaks, creating challenges for the many international partners providing support. Quantities of staff, supplies, and equipment, including personal protective equipment, cannot keep up with the need. Hospital and diagnostic capacities have been overwhelmed.
“Many treatment centres and general clinics have closed. Fear keeps patients out and causes medical staff to flee."
An additional problem is that corpses are often buried without official notification, the WHO said, while an additional problem is the existence of numerous "shadow zones", or rural villages where there are rumours of cases and deaths that cannot be investigated because of community resistance or lack of staff and transport, the UN health agency added.
It noted that the presence of patients from these other communities was resented by the West Point community in Liberia, and this resentment contributed to the riot and subsequent looting, in which potentially contaminated materials were carried into these communities.
The WHO said its epidemiologists in Sierra Leone and Liberia are working with other agencies, including Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors without Borders) and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, to produce more realistic estimates and thus communicate the true magnitude of needs.
The WHO's warning came as it announced that Ebola epidemic in West Africa has led to 1,427 deaths out of 2,615 known cases including two new cases reported in Nigeria.
The UN health agency issued a situation assessment detailing why the outbreak in West Africa had been underestimated, following criticism that it had moved too slowly to contain the killer virus, now spreading out of control.
"Many families hide infected loved ones in their homes. As Ebola has no cure, some believe infected loved ones will be more comfortable dying at home," the WHO statement said.
Others, it added, deny that a patient has Ebola and believe that care in an isolation ward - viewed as an incubator of the disease - will lead to infection and certain death. "Most fear the stigma and social rejection that come to patients and families when a diagnosis of Ebola is confirmed."
"These are fast-moving outbreaks, creating challenges for the many international partners providing support. Quantities of staff, supplies, and equipment, including personal protective equipment, cannot keep up with the need. Hospital and diagnostic capacities have been overwhelmed.
“Many treatment centres and general clinics have closed. Fear keeps patients out and causes medical staff to flee."
An additional problem is that corpses are often buried without official notification, the WHO said, while an additional problem is the existence of numerous "shadow zones", or rural villages where there are rumours of cases and deaths that cannot be investigated because of community resistance or lack of staff and transport, the UN health agency added.
It noted that the presence of patients from these other communities was resented by the West Point community in Liberia, and this resentment contributed to the riot and subsequent looting, in which potentially contaminated materials were carried into these communities.
The WHO said its epidemiologists in Sierra Leone and Liberia are working with other agencies, including Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors without Borders) and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, to produce more realistic estimates and thus communicate the true magnitude of needs.
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Many Lagos hospitals are now turning away patients they suspect may have Ebola. Other diseases, such as malaria and typhoid, have similar symptoms so hospitals are frightened they may be admitting Ebola patients who they don't have the skills, equipment or resources to deal with. This is leading to people treating themselves at home - not good.
I see some Air Chance cabin crew are now refusing to fly on Lagos flights because they're worried about being exposed to Ebola.
As for Bristow management, I wasn't aware we have any
. You'd think that by now, after the last attempt to send in a HoFO with no Nigeria experience, they'd think twice about bringing in someone from outside. Nigeria is a difficult place to be a manager in, especially for someone who's never done it here before. The last 2 HoFOs have made little or no impact on the place, unless you think powder blue flight suits represent a big step forward! The new man will probably be heavily advised by OO. It seems that Eket is one of the few places which is fairly well managed these days. I think helipiloto is wrong about Akin (who is MD, not GM). He's basically a decent man but since being promoted into his present position, he's changed because of all the pressure from Houston and has to toe the company line even when he doesn't agree with it.
The culling at Caverton is probably just so that the senior managers can have more perks and bigger cars
I see some Air Chance cabin crew are now refusing to fly on Lagos flights because they're worried about being exposed to Ebola.
As for Bristow management, I wasn't aware we have any
. You'd think that by now, after the last attempt to send in a HoFO with no Nigeria experience, they'd think twice about bringing in someone from outside. Nigeria is a difficult place to be a manager in, especially for someone who's never done it here before. The last 2 HoFOs have made little or no impact on the place, unless you think powder blue flight suits represent a big step forward! The new man will probably be heavily advised by OO. It seems that Eket is one of the few places which is fairly well managed these days. I think helipiloto is wrong about Akin (who is MD, not GM). He's basically a decent man but since being promoted into his present position, he's changed because of all the pressure from Houston and has to toe the company line even when he doesn't agree with it.The culling at Caverton is probably just so that the senior managers can have more perks and bigger cars
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initials: AMUSING
So we had;
SS/Tough, smart, aware
(PG/Chewing, spitting, sitting)
DD/Related to Oscar Pistorius; explains a lot
and now JJ, assisted by OO (Oh-oh!)
Funny in an alphabetical kind of way.
At least we now have 2 x D/CP + 2 x CP @ NAF to buffer the inexperience, brutality, and lack of forward-thinking in our near future?
SS/Tough, smart, aware
(PG/Chewing, spitting, sitting)
DD/Related to Oscar Pistorius; explains a lot
and now JJ, assisted by OO (Oh-oh!)
Funny in an alphabetical kind of way.
At least we now have 2 x D/CP + 2 x CP @ NAF to buffer the inexperience, brutality, and lack of forward-thinking in our near future?
Last edited by SirKORSKY; 25th Aug 2014 at 13:32. Reason: Another thought on the stairs
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SirK,
Though I have no love for our management, I think you're being a bit unfair actually.
SS was actually number 2 to the bright but idle PW, who was sacked a year before SS retired.
PG never quite grasped Nigeria, sat, spat, chewed but was sacrificed to the frogs (who hated him as much as he hated them) by one nasty bit of work who was forced out himself soon after.
DD is not related by blood to Oscar Pistorius so that's a bit below the belt. I think he meant well but was pretty ineffectual.
Now of course, JJ could be the famous engineer of that name, renowned for sitting in his office because he was too fat to actually climb up on to an aircraft and do a preflight, then sign off after one of his minions had be sent out to do the work.
Of course the problem is that JJ is going to come heavily under the influence of Wacko Jacko, so he stands little real chance of making any impact
Meanwhile, in echoes of the IS campaign in Iraq and Syria, Boko Haram has now proclaimed an Islamic caliphate in the North East of our country
Then we have not so much an Ebola crisis as a healthcare crisis in the poor countries of West Africa
It all kind of puts the management inadequacies in Bristow into perspective really doesn't it? Righ now both my country and my company are going downhill and it makes me sad.
Though I have no love for our management, I think you're being a bit unfair actually.
SS was actually number 2 to the bright but idle PW, who was sacked a year before SS retired.
PG never quite grasped Nigeria, sat, spat, chewed but was sacrificed to the frogs (who hated him as much as he hated them) by one nasty bit of work who was forced out himself soon after.
DD is not related by blood to Oscar Pistorius so that's a bit below the belt. I think he meant well but was pretty ineffectual.
Now of course, JJ could be the famous engineer of that name, renowned for sitting in his office because he was too fat to actually climb up on to an aircraft and do a preflight, then sign off after one of his minions had be sent out to do the work.
Of course the problem is that JJ is going to come heavily under the influence of Wacko Jacko, so he stands little real chance of making any impact
Meanwhile, in echoes of the IS campaign in Iraq and Syria, Boko Haram has now proclaimed an Islamic caliphate in the North East of our country
Boko Haram proclaims ‘Islamic caliphate’
Boko Haram’s leader says he has created an Islamic caliphate in a northeast Nigeria town seized by the insurgents earlier this month, in a video obtained by AFP.
‘Thanks be to Allah who gave victory to our brethren in [the town of] Gwoza and made it part of the Islamic caliphate,’ Abubakar Shekau said in the 52-minute video.
He declared that Gwoza, in Borno state, now has ‘nothing to do with Nigeria’.
‘By the grace of Allah we will not leave the town. We have come to stay,’ said Shekau, who has been designated a global terrorist by the United States and sanctioned by the UN Security Council.
The United Nations humanitarian office (OCHA) earlier this month confirmed reports that Gwoza was under rebel control.
Boko Haram is also believed to be in control of other areas near Gwoza in southern Borno, as well as large swathes of territory in northern Borno and at least one town in neighbouring Yobe state.
Mapping the precise areas which have fallen into Islamist hands is nearly impossible.
There are few humanitarian workers on the ground in the northeast, travel is dangerous and the region, which has been under a state of emergency since May of last year, has poor mobile phone coverage.
Experts have described Boko Haram’s gains in recent weeks as unprecedented, saying the group was closer than ever to achieving its goal of carving out a strict Islamic state across northern Nigeria.
But many analysts believe the military has the capacity to reverse the insurgents’ advance.
Soldiers this week refused to deploy to Gwoza without better weapons in an apparent mutiny.
AFP
Boko Haram’s leader says he has created an Islamic caliphate in a northeast Nigeria town seized by the insurgents earlier this month, in a video obtained by AFP.
‘Thanks be to Allah who gave victory to our brethren in [the town of] Gwoza and made it part of the Islamic caliphate,’ Abubakar Shekau said in the 52-minute video.
He declared that Gwoza, in Borno state, now has ‘nothing to do with Nigeria’.
‘By the grace of Allah we will not leave the town. We have come to stay,’ said Shekau, who has been designated a global terrorist by the United States and sanctioned by the UN Security Council.
The United Nations humanitarian office (OCHA) earlier this month confirmed reports that Gwoza was under rebel control.
Boko Haram is also believed to be in control of other areas near Gwoza in southern Borno, as well as large swathes of territory in northern Borno and at least one town in neighbouring Yobe state.
Mapping the precise areas which have fallen into Islamist hands is nearly impossible.
There are few humanitarian workers on the ground in the northeast, travel is dangerous and the region, which has been under a state of emergency since May of last year, has poor mobile phone coverage.
Experts have described Boko Haram’s gains in recent weeks as unprecedented, saying the group was closer than ever to achieving its goal of carving out a strict Islamic state across northern Nigeria.
But many analysts believe the military has the capacity to reverse the insurgents’ advance.
Soldiers this week refused to deploy to Gwoza without better weapons in an apparent mutiny.
AFP
Ebola is a warning sign of a much bigger crisis
A frightening disease hit an African country this month, infecting thousands of people and killing dozens. Hospital wards were jammed, health workers struggled to cope. As cases soared, overwhelmed officials called the impact “staggering.”
But this outbreak didn’t provoke any global headlines, because it was just another cholera outbreak in Ghana – an almost annual event in the capital, Accra.
Ebola, of course, has captured the media’s attention: It has a much higher death rate than other diseases, and it has had a devastating effect on Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea. The world is right to send medical aid to those countries and to stay alert to suspected new cases. But it’s also true that Ebola is less contagious than other diseases; it is transmitted by bodily fluids, not by air, water or mosquitoes. The virus has been spread by commercial airplane only once, by an ill passenger to Nigeria.
Other diseases, including malaria and diarrheal diseases such as cholera, routinely kill far more people than Ebola across Africa. In the Ghana outbreak alone, more than 3,100 people were infected and nearly 50 were killed. Even at the epicentre of the Ebola outbreak, malaria has caused up to 35 times more deaths than Ebola this year.
But Ebola is a warning sign of a much bigger crisis: the fragility of African health and sanitation systems after many years of poverty, illiteracy, neglect and, in some countries, catastrophic civil war. Even in countries that have recently seen impressive economic growth and foreign investment, the money is failing to reach the hospitals and health-care workers who can prevent disease outbreaks.
Government authority has been almost non-existent in many West African regions, including, crucially, the border crossings in the Ebola “hot zone” where a million people live. Hospitals and clinics, meanwhile, are severely under-staffed, suffer from shortages of equipment (even such basics as disposable rubber gloves) and medicine, and often lack even electricity and running water.
Everywhere the signs of state collapse have been exposed. Bodies of Ebola victims, often lie uncollected in homes and streets for days at a time. Some hospitals have been completely abandoned after staff and patients fled. Quarantine efforts sometimes fail because people simply walk around the checkpoints.
The spread of Ebola out from the villages of southern Guinea, the source of the current outbreak, was fuelled by a similar state failure. Guinea’s first cases were confirmed in March, and by April the virus was taking hold. But the health system was so inadequate, and ignorance so widespread, that many people with the Ebola virus decided to cross over the poorly controlled border to Sierra Leone, where they sought treatment from a herbalist who claimed to have the power to cure Ebola.
Instead of curing others, she soon became infected with the Ebola virus and died. Mourners at her funeral then spread the disease across the region, according to published reports. The herbalist’s death led to hundreds of new cases of the disease in Sierra Leone.
Margaret Chan, director-general of the World Health Organization, says the Ebola outbreak has “allowed the world to see what can happen when a lethal and deadly dreaded virus takes root in a setting of extreme poverty and dysfunctional health systems.”
The hardest-hit countries “have only recently emerged from years of conflict and civil war that have left their health systems largely destroyed or severely disabled and, in some areas, left a generation of children without education,” Dr. Chan said in a report this week in the New England Journal of Medicine.
“In these countries, only one or two doctors are available for every 100,000 people, and these doctors are heavily concentrated in urban areas. Isolation wards and even hospital capacity for infection control are virtually non-existent. Contacts of infected persons are being traced but not consistently isolated for monitoring.”
It’s clear that the world neglected the Ebola outbreak when it first emerged. Only a few aid agencies, notably Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders), responded speedily to the crisis. The United Nations health agency, the WHO, was slow to act. But governments in Africa have also failed to invest in health. Most countries hit by Ebola were spending less than $100 annually per person on health care before the outbreak began.
In Sierra Leone, for example, there is just one physician for every 45,000 people. In Liberia, the ratio is even worse: one physician for every 70,000 people. (In Canada, by contrast, there is a physician for every 476 people. Some Canadian hospitals have more doctors than an entire country in the Ebola zone.) After the outbreak began, some of these few doctors fled the country or quit their jobs, and only about 50 doctors are still working in Liberia right now, according to one estimate.
As the Ebola crisis deepens and the medical burden becomes greater, the worst-hit countries have become so desperate for revenue that they’ve issued treasury bills as a crude way to raise money.
“The outbreak far outstrips their capacity to respond,” Dr. Chan said of the governments afflicted by Ebola. “The attitude of the public is summarized in two sad words: helpless and hopeless. The most urgent request is for more medical staff ... According to current estimates, a facility treating 70 patients needs at least 250 health care workers.”
Deep poverty and the legacy of civil war are among the key reasons for the poor health systems in these countries. But there is also growing evidence, across Africa, that most governments are failing to give enough priority to health care.
At a summit in Abuja in 2001, African nations pledged to increase their government health spending to 15 per cent of total government budgets. Today, only a few African nations have reached this target – and 11 governments have actually reduced their health spending since the Abuja summit.
Of the four countries hit by Ebola, three of them – Guinea, Nigeria and Sierra Leone – have lagged behind the goals in the Abuja Declaration. Guinea and Nigeria, in particular, are far behind the target, despite their substantial revenue from mining and oil in recent years. Liberia was the only one of the four countries to reach its Abuja spending goals. But even this has been inadequate, as the Ebola crisis quickly showed.
To make the situation even worse, illiteracy has hampered the efforts to educate people about disease prevention. In the Ebola-hit countries, there is widespread distrust of the health system and a preference for traditional healers. People see hospitals as prisons or death sentences, since Ebola patients usually don’t survive. They fear the stigma of being identified with Ebola, so they keep infected family members at home. Wild rumours have circulated, claiming that Ebola is a hoax, or a scam by governments to get money.
One of the biggest threats is the combined effect of many diseases at the same time. Because the Ebola outbreak has brought the health system to a standstill, common diseases such as malaria are going untreated, and death rates are rising – “which is completely ridiculous,” said Joanne Liu, a Canadian who is international president of MSF. “What needs to happen now is we need to be able to restore basic health-care access as soon as possible.”
In the Liberian capital, Monrovia, almost every hospital has been shut down by the Ebola crisis. Pregnant women have been seen wandering the streets, unable to get care to deliver their babies. Some have died of labor complications as a result. Others have suffered miscarriages. “People are knocking on our doors in desperate need of health care,” Dr. Liu told a briefing in Geneva.
And then there are the quieter health crises that don’t draw any publicity at all. In Sierra Leone, more than 10,000 people are dependent on long-term life-saving drug treatment for HIV. When Ebola hit, the HIV treatment centres were so disrupted that many people stopped getting their medicine. In the months to come, they could become the victims that never get counted.
Globe & Mail
A frightening disease hit an African country this month, infecting thousands of people and killing dozens. Hospital wards were jammed, health workers struggled to cope. As cases soared, overwhelmed officials called the impact “staggering.”
But this outbreak didn’t provoke any global headlines, because it was just another cholera outbreak in Ghana – an almost annual event in the capital, Accra.
Ebola, of course, has captured the media’s attention: It has a much higher death rate than other diseases, and it has had a devastating effect on Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea. The world is right to send medical aid to those countries and to stay alert to suspected new cases. But it’s also true that Ebola is less contagious than other diseases; it is transmitted by bodily fluids, not by air, water or mosquitoes. The virus has been spread by commercial airplane only once, by an ill passenger to Nigeria.
Other diseases, including malaria and diarrheal diseases such as cholera, routinely kill far more people than Ebola across Africa. In the Ghana outbreak alone, more than 3,100 people were infected and nearly 50 were killed. Even at the epicentre of the Ebola outbreak, malaria has caused up to 35 times more deaths than Ebola this year.
But Ebola is a warning sign of a much bigger crisis: the fragility of African health and sanitation systems after many years of poverty, illiteracy, neglect and, in some countries, catastrophic civil war. Even in countries that have recently seen impressive economic growth and foreign investment, the money is failing to reach the hospitals and health-care workers who can prevent disease outbreaks.
Government authority has been almost non-existent in many West African regions, including, crucially, the border crossings in the Ebola “hot zone” where a million people live. Hospitals and clinics, meanwhile, are severely under-staffed, suffer from shortages of equipment (even such basics as disposable rubber gloves) and medicine, and often lack even electricity and running water.
Everywhere the signs of state collapse have been exposed. Bodies of Ebola victims, often lie uncollected in homes and streets for days at a time. Some hospitals have been completely abandoned after staff and patients fled. Quarantine efforts sometimes fail because people simply walk around the checkpoints.
The spread of Ebola out from the villages of southern Guinea, the source of the current outbreak, was fuelled by a similar state failure. Guinea’s first cases were confirmed in March, and by April the virus was taking hold. But the health system was so inadequate, and ignorance so widespread, that many people with the Ebola virus decided to cross over the poorly controlled border to Sierra Leone, where they sought treatment from a herbalist who claimed to have the power to cure Ebola.
Instead of curing others, she soon became infected with the Ebola virus and died. Mourners at her funeral then spread the disease across the region, according to published reports. The herbalist’s death led to hundreds of new cases of the disease in Sierra Leone.
Margaret Chan, director-general of the World Health Organization, says the Ebola outbreak has “allowed the world to see what can happen when a lethal and deadly dreaded virus takes root in a setting of extreme poverty and dysfunctional health systems.”
The hardest-hit countries “have only recently emerged from years of conflict and civil war that have left their health systems largely destroyed or severely disabled and, in some areas, left a generation of children without education,” Dr. Chan said in a report this week in the New England Journal of Medicine.
“In these countries, only one or two doctors are available for every 100,000 people, and these doctors are heavily concentrated in urban areas. Isolation wards and even hospital capacity for infection control are virtually non-existent. Contacts of infected persons are being traced but not consistently isolated for monitoring.”
It’s clear that the world neglected the Ebola outbreak when it first emerged. Only a few aid agencies, notably Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders), responded speedily to the crisis. The United Nations health agency, the WHO, was slow to act. But governments in Africa have also failed to invest in health. Most countries hit by Ebola were spending less than $100 annually per person on health care before the outbreak began.
In Sierra Leone, for example, there is just one physician for every 45,000 people. In Liberia, the ratio is even worse: one physician for every 70,000 people. (In Canada, by contrast, there is a physician for every 476 people. Some Canadian hospitals have more doctors than an entire country in the Ebola zone.) After the outbreak began, some of these few doctors fled the country or quit their jobs, and only about 50 doctors are still working in Liberia right now, according to one estimate.
As the Ebola crisis deepens and the medical burden becomes greater, the worst-hit countries have become so desperate for revenue that they’ve issued treasury bills as a crude way to raise money.
“The outbreak far outstrips their capacity to respond,” Dr. Chan said of the governments afflicted by Ebola. “The attitude of the public is summarized in two sad words: helpless and hopeless. The most urgent request is for more medical staff ... According to current estimates, a facility treating 70 patients needs at least 250 health care workers.”
Deep poverty and the legacy of civil war are among the key reasons for the poor health systems in these countries. But there is also growing evidence, across Africa, that most governments are failing to give enough priority to health care.
At a summit in Abuja in 2001, African nations pledged to increase their government health spending to 15 per cent of total government budgets. Today, only a few African nations have reached this target – and 11 governments have actually reduced their health spending since the Abuja summit.
Of the four countries hit by Ebola, three of them – Guinea, Nigeria and Sierra Leone – have lagged behind the goals in the Abuja Declaration. Guinea and Nigeria, in particular, are far behind the target, despite their substantial revenue from mining and oil in recent years. Liberia was the only one of the four countries to reach its Abuja spending goals. But even this has been inadequate, as the Ebola crisis quickly showed.
To make the situation even worse, illiteracy has hampered the efforts to educate people about disease prevention. In the Ebola-hit countries, there is widespread distrust of the health system and a preference for traditional healers. People see hospitals as prisons or death sentences, since Ebola patients usually don’t survive. They fear the stigma of being identified with Ebola, so they keep infected family members at home. Wild rumours have circulated, claiming that Ebola is a hoax, or a scam by governments to get money.
One of the biggest threats is the combined effect of many diseases at the same time. Because the Ebola outbreak has brought the health system to a standstill, common diseases such as malaria are going untreated, and death rates are rising – “which is completely ridiculous,” said Joanne Liu, a Canadian who is international president of MSF. “What needs to happen now is we need to be able to restore basic health-care access as soon as possible.”
In the Liberian capital, Monrovia, almost every hospital has been shut down by the Ebola crisis. Pregnant women have been seen wandering the streets, unable to get care to deliver their babies. Some have died of labor complications as a result. Others have suffered miscarriages. “People are knocking on our doors in desperate need of health care,” Dr. Liu told a briefing in Geneva.
And then there are the quieter health crises that don’t draw any publicity at all. In Sierra Leone, more than 10,000 people are dependent on long-term life-saving drug treatment for HIV. When Ebola hit, the HIV treatment centres were so disrupted that many people stopped getting their medicine. In the months to come, they could become the victims that never get counted.
Globe & Mail
BBC Link
P1
Nigeria has confirmed its first Ebola death outside Lagos – a doctor in the oil hub of Port Harcourt.
A further 70 people are under surveillance in the city, while his wife has been put under quarantine.
The doctor had treated a patient, who later recovered, who had met Patrick Sawyer, the man who took Ebola from Liberia to Nigeria.
West Africa's health ministers are meeting later to discuss how to tackle the world's most deadly Ebola outbreak.
More than 1,550 people have died, with more than 3,000 confirmed cases - mostly in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.
Nigeria's Health minister Onyebuchi Chukwu said the Port Harcourt doctor had died on 22 August, but the results of the tests have only just been made public.
More than 240 health workers have been infected with Ebola - a rate which the World Health Organization (WHO) said was "unprecedented".
It noted that in many cases protective suits, even rubber gloves and face masks, were not available.
The doctor becomes the sixth fatality in Nigeria, which is Africa's most populous country.
On Wednesday, Nigeria announced that schools would not reopen after holidays until 13 October in order to try and contain the disease.
A further 70 people are under surveillance in the city, while his wife has been put under quarantine.
The doctor had treated a patient, who later recovered, who had met Patrick Sawyer, the man who took Ebola from Liberia to Nigeria.
West Africa's health ministers are meeting later to discuss how to tackle the world's most deadly Ebola outbreak.
More than 1,550 people have died, with more than 3,000 confirmed cases - mostly in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.
Nigeria's Health minister Onyebuchi Chukwu said the Port Harcourt doctor had died on 22 August, but the results of the tests have only just been made public.
More than 240 health workers have been infected with Ebola - a rate which the World Health Organization (WHO) said was "unprecedented".
It noted that in many cases protective suits, even rubber gloves and face masks, were not available.
The doctor becomes the sixth fatality in Nigeria, which is Africa's most populous country.
On Wednesday, Nigeria announced that schools would not reopen after holidays until 13 October in order to try and contain the disease.
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How many folks have died of Malaria?
You don't hear much talk of that but yet Bristow has lost some folks to one of the biggest killers in the World.
WHO ranks Nigeria 75th in then World for Deaths due to Malaria.....with a rate of 74 per 100,000 people.
Ebola is far less common although far more deadly.
http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs103/en/
You don't hear much talk of that but yet Bristow has lost some folks to one of the biggest killers in the World.
WHO ranks Nigeria 75th in then World for Deaths due to Malaria.....with a rate of 74 per 100,000 people.
Ebola is far less common although far more deadly.
http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs103/en/
Last edited by Boudreaux Bob; 28th Aug 2014 at 13:25.
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As one who spent 12 years in Nigeria the second time round, 1987-2000 (Eket for 10 and a couple from Calabar/PH), first time 1977 for a few months.
I think I saw the best of times in EKET, I would love to go back to visit, but all my friends and probably correctly quote the old adage, don't go back it not what you remember, I'm sure it's not!!
I survived three serious bouts of Malaria, all hospital cases, one cerebal, now that was fun!! I was looked after in the UK by the tropical medical Institute from London for the first week in the Royal Naval Hospital Haslar, the second two weeks by the lovely nurses there at the time with a lot of pain killers (Diamorphine, off my head for a long time, but no pain). I knew three personal friends who all died from the big 'M' and count myself very lucky to still be here.
As for Ebola, boys, stay safe and look after yourselves, best of luck!
Stacey
(Doha)
I think I saw the best of times in EKET, I would love to go back to visit, but all my friends and probably correctly quote the old adage, don't go back it not what you remember, I'm sure it's not!!
I survived three serious bouts of Malaria, all hospital cases, one cerebal, now that was fun!! I was looked after in the UK by the tropical medical Institute from London for the first week in the Royal Naval Hospital Haslar, the second two weeks by the lovely nurses there at the time with a lot of pain killers (Diamorphine, off my head for a long time, but no pain). I knew three personal friends who all died from the big 'M' and count myself very lucky to still be here.
As for Ebola, boys, stay safe and look after yourselves, best of luck!
Stacey
(Doha)