UK-based Ugandan nurse who survived Covid-19 narrates ordeal
A medical worker prepares a test to check a bus driver of communal bus fleet for COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, in western Ukrainian city of Lviv, on March 31, 2020. AFP PHOTO
What you need to know:
- At a household level, she urged Ugandans to use more ginger, garlic, lemon and honey to boost their immunity and that of the children. She said this mixture should be taken in the morning and evening.
A UK based Ugandan nurse who survived the deadly coronavirus in London has cautioned Ugandans against panicking.
She also urged Ugandans to equip themselves with functional information about the pandemic that has so far killed more than 40,000 people worldwide and infected more than 800,000 others.
Narrating her two- week- ordeal on phone, the young lady who requested not to be named because she is not supposed to speak to the media but works at a high-end hospital in South East London, said she caught the virus from a patient at the hospital.
“We had been receiving many such cases with high temperatures and we were attending to them like any other patient without protection. So on March 14, I was sent to work in the wing where there was this patient with high temperature, at one time he stood up to go to the toilet, he stumbled and I grabbed him,” she narrated what happened before she caught the deadly coronavirus.
The former journalist now turned nurse said, after the incident, on March 17, she started presenting with high temperatures. Sometimes her temperatures would go up to 39.8 degrees but didn’t know what the problem was. She suspects she infected other people in the process.
“When I told my bosses, I was told to quarantine myself. So whenever the temperatures would rise I would use paracetamol to control the temperature. The amount of paracetamol I have swallowed in the ten days, is more than what I have used in the last seven years,” she said.
Though she had high fever, she was breathing normally even at night. She said, people with breathing problems that are the most affected because they will need oxygen.
She has advised Ugandans to stop panicking and join the fight against the pandemic. She has asked people to stay at home as much as possible, wash hands with soap or sanitiser and avoid crowds.
She said knowledge is the most important part of fighting the virus. She said every home should limit the people going out for shopping.
“If anybody returns to the house either from work, they should not make contact with people at home before bathing. Let them remove any protective gear and even the clothes and bathe. Even the bag find, a place you can hang it, the virus can even cling on clothes, bags and even hair,” she said.
Anybody who feels doing all that is a tall order should not leave the house.
She said other than being swallowed up with fear, Ugandans should follow the advise of medical personnel and follow their instructions.
At a household level, she urged Ugandans to use more ginger, garlic, lemon and honey to boost their immunity and that of the children. She said this mixture should be taken in the morning and evening.
