Community Engagement and Building Institutional Resilience: Exploring Quarantine Ethics, Social Processes and Options for Nigeria

The burden of infectious and parasitic diseases in Nigeria is high. The outbreak, in recent years, of Ebola, Lassa fever, and Meningitis among other diseases is a signal that more outbreaks are on the horizon and Nigeria’s health system must adequately focus on building strong communities and institutions. In conjunction with effective health surveillance and contact tracing, quarantine remains one of the few effective ways to arrest disease outbreak. Among health workers and community people, there is an aggregation of unwholesome experiences which increases vulnerability. The paper examines the use of force; post-quarantine labeling/stigmatization of health workers and quarantined persons; problems of social re-integration; and class discrimination in quarantine administration. The paper adopts Arjen’s Theory of Planned Behaviour. Through a review of literature from 2000 to 2017, using databases (PubMed, CINAHL Plus and the Cochrane Library), the paper develops narratives on themes such as: social class disparities, appropriateness and scope of quarantine, use of experimental drugs, and the ethics of coercion. This study provides new ways for implementing quarantine within culturally acceptable contexts. This will provide local solutions to the challenges of– how quarantine is set-up, administered, and managed in Nigeria.