Kate, Bright and Happiness sat on the lawn of a Lagos
brothel, sipping lager and chatting with men in groups of two or four. Business
had been good, they said, until Ebola arrived.
“I have been in this business for two years but business has
never been this slow,” said Kate.
“I used to have an average of seven customers per day but I
can hardly see four now since this Ebola disease came to town,” the 25-year-old
told AFP.
“Many of our customers are afraid to come to us for fear of
contracting the disease. This Ebola wahala (problem) is really bad business.
The government should do something about it.”
With Ebola spread through the bodily fluids of an infected
person, including sweat, the sex workers say they’ve been particularly badly
hit by public fears.
“This disease is bad-o!” said 23-year-old Bright. “It is
worse than HIV/AIDS. You can prevent HIV by using condoms but you can’t do the
same with Ebola.
“If care is not taken we will soon be driven out of business
because nobody wants to die.”
Sex workers aren’t the only ones in the informal economy —
in which an estimated three-quarters of Nigerians work — who are feeling the
effects of Ebola. Three people have died of the disease in Lagos, and more are
expected.
Sellers of bushmeat, a popular delicacy in Nigeria and
elsewhere in the region, also complain of fewer customers.
The hunters, who catch animals such as antelope, porcupine
and bush rats, fear for their livelihoods if the trend continues.
Fruit bats and monkeys are both thought to transmit the
virus.
Guinea, which with Sierra Leone and Liberia has had more
than 1,000 deaths from Ebola since the start of the year, banned the
consumption of bats to try to control the spread to humans.
Doctors attending to an Ebola virus victim
Nigeria has issued similar warnings about bushmeat but not
outlawed the practice.
Vivian Lateef Koshefobamu has been in the bushmeat business
nearly 30 years. But the 45-year-old’s stall stands alone and even then only
displays a few pieces of roasted meat.
“The customers have all run away for fear of Ebola,” she
told AFP. “They are scared. Most of the bushmeat sellers are also not coming to
sell for the same reason. But I’m not afraid.”
The health advice was “mere propaganda to spoil our
business”, she added.
Elsewhere in megacity Lagos, home to more than 21 million,
everyone from market traders and undertakers, bank workers to shop assistants
openly discusses their fears and how they’ve changed their behaviour.
At the Oke Arin and Balogun markets in central Lagos, some
traders wear gloves and protective masks and swear that trade is slack —
although the teeming crowds suggest otherwise.
In banks, cashiers and other staff dealing with banknotes
and the public do the same.
Taxi, motorised rickshaw and bus drivers fear carrying
contaminated passengers. Few people shake hands. Everyone is wary. Even the bus
queues have become slightly more orderly.
“If somebody should have sweat on his or her body and I get
in contact with the person, I’m aware of the fact that I might get the virus,”
said bus passenger Kolawole Olalekan.
“So, everybody now… we all get into the bus gently. No
rushing like the normal Lagos hustle and all.”
At MIC Royal, a firm of undertakers potentially on the front
line given that the bodies of Ebola victims can still pass on the virus after
death, bosses decided to turn down business.
“Our company has not buried any Ebola victim since the
outbreak and we will not handle such a job if given,” said senior manager Tunji
Adesalu.
“As undertakers, we appeal to the bereaved to encourage the
cremation of their dead in order to reduce the risks of contracting the Ebola
virus.”
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