Nigeria, Oct. 27 -- When the news hit that Nigeria's Ebola index case had finally left our shores, you could almost hear the collective exhale across the country. People immediately started acting like the storm had passed. But anyone who understands how these things work knows better. Public health doesn't operate on relief, it operates on calendar days. Until we clear the full 42-day surveillance window,two complete incubation cycles without a single new whisper of the virus,we are merely standing in a quiet interlude, not a clear horizon.

While health officials were watching their quarantine clocks, the public was doing what it always does best, turning a serious national crisis into premium entertainment.

The spark was simple enoug...