The Ebola virus epidemic developed, from the beginning of 2014, in the countries of West Africa; Cases have been recorded in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea.

As a reminder, the Ebola virus has a very strong virality from which its great dangerousness. Its transmission is made by contact with bodily secretions (saliva, blood, sperm).

During the 2014 Ebola epidemic, panic took hold of the population because there is no remedy or a vaccine against this virus. Given this context in tension, the majority of Nigerians tried to reassure themselves as it could since no cases had yet been reported. But information fell as a cleaver: “a 40 -year -old Liberian official, P a Trick Sawyer , collapsed upon his arrival at Nigeria. Instantly, health authorities have diagnosed that he had the Ebola virus . The news has plunged everyone into fear and continuously occupied public speech. Measures have been taken by the government which declared a state of national emergency, advocating to citizens to limit contacts between them.

The news has spread like powder trail and many people have panicked by the fear of the Ebola virus. During the first week of August 2014, people began to communicate around a clever mixture supposed to be an effective remedy against the Ebola virus.

Anadolu agency , Raliat Abegbe (a resident of Mushin, located in the economic lung of Lagos) testifies: "I drank yesterday and I took a bath with salt water".

Still according to this same source, Ms. Abegbe, 80, said he took a salt water bath after hearing her neighbors talking about it. The heyy was not the only one in this case, because according to Solomon Aderibigbe (a 40 -year -old mason): "At least four members of my family called me to ask me to drink the iodine solution and to bathe in saline water"; While continuing his remarks: "They told me that it was healing Ebola".

Is there a remedy against the Ebola virus?

Idakwo Michael Ameh Oboni, head of the kingdom of Igala, whose people are convinced that he has very great vaud and esoteric powers, said his clan to use a solution based on salt and water to cure the Ebola virus . This miraculous solution, intended for the Igala people, quickly spread and it became viral on social media and traditional media (local radio and television stations). Telephone users have also amplified this false information, by calling and sending messages to their family and friends to ask them to use this magic solution to divine powers.

According to a completely different version, the remedy composed of salt water, was launched by a Nigerian blogger named Adesuwa .

The latter said it was a bad joke and that it did not expect it to be broadcast on a large scale. She admitted to having transmitted the message on different supports like Blackberry Messenger and Whatsapp, in order to make a dubious stuffing to her friends.

The recording of the message can be read as follows:

" URGENT! URGENT!!! Ebola ... precaution ”.

"Salaam; I received a very urgent call around 4 am, asking me to prepare hot water mixed with salt. You can let it warm in a bath ... which will suit your body ... then take a bath in this salty solution".

The whistleblower said it was to warn #? Ebola .... "Please do it now and share!"

Then, shortly after having broadcast her message, she gained the floor on social networks to apologize to her audience that because it was not necessary to follow her recommendations. Continuing her story, the blogger adds: "Even my mother, called me this morning ... I didn't know what to say to her".

Despite his confessions accompanied by apology, many people continued to believe in the miracle remedy and his iodized solution.

For the record, in Nigeria the percentage of users and subscribers on social networks and very important. According to Business Daily , 71 % of adults in Nigeria had a mobile phone in 2011, and these users are also subscribed to popular social media platforms such as Instagram, Blackberry Messenger (BBM), Whatsapp, 2GB, Twitter and Facebook. Added to the use of social networks, an important audience linked to traditional media to circulate this information throughout the country.

When the disinformation generates disinformation!

The various information , on the Saline solution, was communicated to the inhabitants of the Borno State; Asking them to use this drink and add water and salt to bathe at dawn and recite certain parts of the Koran. The inhabitants of this State therefore challenged the order of the government, to limit contacts, by leaving their homes before dawn in search of salt by all means.

In another province of Nigeria, the inhabitants of the State of Enugu (located in most of eastern Nigeria), with a Christian predominance, also shared salt and water after an unknown source said that a Catholic priest known as Ejike Mbaka recommended the remedy to his faithful. Knowing that salt water would also be one of the main components used in the manufacture of holy water . This same “holy water”, mainly serves in the preparation of different offices, such as baptism, blessing, spiritual purification of water and air.

The importance that salt and water in the Catholic Church is sacred because it has favored its acceptance and dissemination among believers.

Finally, and according to other sources, recommendations have turned to a solution of Amer Kola or Nano-Argent as another remedy against the Ebola virus.

In less than 24 hours, the price of salt has skyrocketed, the news having spread throughout Nigeria and even in most African countries, pushing desperate citizens to store this commodity in a frantic research of protection against the Ebola virus. The Minister of Health, Onyebuchi Chukwu, called on Nigerians not to take into account the rumor, which first circulated through SMS, calls and alert messages on social media. "This is a complete lie, a total error, a evil rumor".

The Nigerian government has also published a statement warning that the bath with salt water is not a cure for the deadly Ebola virus. The government has even launched a campaign on all social media platforms against the use of salt and water as a remedy against the Ebola virus. All the efforts made to discredit the rumor have been in vain, because the initial prescription is already widely adopted. Some people used it more than three times a day, at specific times during the day.

The iodized solution: a soil favorable to hypertension

Unconcetic sources have informed the public, via social media of an exaggerated number of people killed by this virus. This has strengthened the fear of the population who used the salt water solution.

Research published in the Pan -African Medical Journal shows that Nigeria reported its first case of illness in July 2014; At the end of the epidemic, 20 people had been infected and eight of them died.

At the heart of panic and disinformation, the population has neglected the side effects by absorbing an excessive amount of salt. Nigeria is a country where the rate of people suffering from diagnosed or not diagnosed hypertension (better known as high blood pressure), is very widespread. These people were part of the population who bet on salt and water remedies as if their lives depended, without knowing that they were going to increase health problems.

In a study entitled: An estimate of the prevalence of hypertension in nigeria - a systematic review and meta -analysis published on the journal of hypertension the article estimates that “20.8 million Nigerian suffer from cases of hypertension in Nigeria”. Still according to this study: “By 2030, a projection confirms an increase at 39.1 million cases of hypertension in people aged at least 20 years”

The Vanguard newspaper reports that "at least two people died and 20 others were hospitalized in various hospitals in the set of the set after consuming a large amount of salt and kola bitter to prevent the Ebola virus". This following "a viral message on social media according to which these products could prevent the spread of the Ebola virus".

No one knows, if deceased or hospitalized people knew that they suffered from hypertension before taking a dose of salt.

"The owner of the USHAKAA hospital located behind the public service commission in Makurdi, Dr. Innocent GBILLAH, told our correspondent that the two deceased patients suffered from hypertension because they had taken too much salt water. Gbbillah said the victims, a man and a woman, were admitted to his hospital last Saturday from their various locations of residence, respectively North Bank and Bnarda, in Makurdi, after taking the solution and having become very sick. He said his medical team had done everything in his power to help the victims, but in vain, one of them having died Tuesday at 7 pm, while the other died on Wednesday at 5 am. "

The observation is alarming, because the greatest number of people hospitalized, was following an overdose of salt rather than by the Ebola virus. This epidemic, of false information, was very viral and its amplification, via traditional media and social media, caused a widespread panic causing more victims than the Ebola virus.

Charity Ani Kosisohukwu