Who said pandemics are that bad?... They come with benefits

The world’s second deadliest Ebola epidemic is set to be declared officially over on the Easter weekend. This will follow the discharge of the last Ebola patient in the Congolese town of Beni at the beginning of this month, which started off the 42-day countdown to the end of Christian 2020 Lenten.

However, the Beni discharge coincided with two scary events of great significance to the world of health. First of course was the coronavirus as cases approached 100,000 cases worldwide. The second was the release of a scientific report in the Cardiovascular Research journal that the air pollution pandemic is cutting three years off human lives worldwide.

Of course the more polluted regions are more affected, like northern India’s Utter Pradesh state of 200 million people whose lives are cut short by 8.8 years due to the dirty air they breathe. And in Kabul, the Afghan capital, the dirty air polluted by its old cars has killed more people than the country’s wars.

At the other extreme, air in the Swiss city of Zurich is virtually clean, with most people moving about by cycling or using the multi-modal public transport which combines electric trams and trolley buses. Worldwide, polluted air is a bigger public health hazard than smoking.

But even a dark cloud has its silver lining. In the case of pandemics, call it unintended consequences or benefits.

Back to the DR Congo Ebola, it has left Uganda (and presumably DR Congo as well) a much healthier country as far as sanitation is concerned. When the epidemic broke out, Uganda quickly tightened its border by screening entrants and subjecting each and every one of them to the disinfectant hand and foot wash, regardless of how many times one (like petty border traders) crossed.

The sanitation measures spread to public places and schools in the western districts of Uganda. Repeated handwashing with soap became a culture. Soon a drastic drop in diarrheal cases was noted as was with other issues related to poor sanitation.

Health officials now report respiratory diseases as the leading health problem. And thus, we have Congo’s Ebola to thank for western Uganda’s improved sanitation and personal hygiene.

And now coronavirus is bringing the face masks. It is too early to tell when the threat will end, since it is still rising and there is no knowing when it will reach the peak, plateau and finally start declining.

But with Kampala being in the same league of Kabul of using almost exclusively old vehicles and having absolutely zero controls for vehicular pollution, the face masks are going to be a godsend, to those who will use them.

For the air in Kampala is really polluted. In the past, we were used to the United States embassy issuing advisories to its people coming to Uganda over politically inspired insecurity. Now the warning is constant. US State Department with US Environmental Protection Agency maintain real time monitoring of the air (Air Quality Index) in selected cities, and Kampala’s readings are not good, usually six times World Health Organisation safety levels.

So in trying to control coronavirus, our people will reduce the deadly exhausts that now cause more deaths than malaria, Aids and alcohol.

Who said pandemics are completely bad?