Deal with Covid-19 trauma, stigma
Joseph Epilu
My wife and I recently tested positive for Covid-19. We were put on strict home-based care and medication. Next was to have all the children tested. Thankfully, all returned negative test results. Keeping the negative test status of the children as well as keeping our treatment safely on track was a challenge.
Some of the greatest people we have in Uganda are our health workers. We received calls at any time of the day or night from doctors with suggestions of ambulance services from the Ministry of Health whenever need arose, which was actually done when a team was dispatched to come and check on the oxygen concentration levels on us. One can see in the midst of the dangers of the virus to themselves, they exude the confidence of dedication as if they personally know every patient, making them unsung heroes.
I wish to state that one of the underlying causes of death of Covid-19 patients is stigma. Patients are under immense danger of dying as a result of the psychological effects due to stigmatisation.
We had to brave the sight children of our close friends and neighbours clearly sending to us a message that we were dead bodies only awaiting transportation to Amuria District for a supervised and ‘poorly’ attended burial given the way we became a local ‘tourist’ attraction for them.
Those children came and stood a distance away from us with their hands covering their noses in belief that possibly wind might blow the virus from us to them. I am so lucky by virtue of my background and the rigorous trainings I earlier went through in the fight against HIV/Aids in Forces, that nobody will ever stigmatise me in any situation to which that person is as well a potential candidate.
The actions of those young people clearly became the determinant of either the recovery or demise of my wife given the way she responded to the mockery that they exhibited. It was very clear that the children had been briefed to act the way they did.
If people who have at least attained an average or indeed a higher level of formal education can behave like that towards Covid-19 patients, shall we blame a lowly educated Ugandan if they acted similarly?
I am so grateful to my daughter Rita Alao who took up the dangers of keeping us comfortable by taking care of us probably oblivious of the associated dangers of infection. She innocently apportioned us a smile of hope.
We were fully constituted by the President in the Covid-19 fight over one year ago. Enough fear has been generated towards the dangers of the virus. The task ahead of this fight is the war against stigma and its psychological effects directed at the patients. Never before has Uganda needed the further strengthening or indeed the recruitment of more counsellors in the fight against Covid-19 than now.
After confirmed cases are referred from the testing centres as Covid-19 positive, the Ministry of Health should adopt the formations used in forces for the successful prosecution of this situation. Recruit through the available district up to village structures (Village Health Teams), train and arm them with all the necessary information and packs of all the doses of treatment of Covid-19 but only administered to patients on homecare under strict supervision of a trained health worker who will be in charge of such a small group like section and or platoon commanders. The RDCs can be sector commanders. In a war situation like we currently find ourselves in, no information should be treated as false until ruled out professionally. Information disseminated should be from reliably designated sources. The best asset, which is currently at the disposal of the Ministry of Health, is correctly packaged, effectively and consistently communicated messages about Covid-19. There are so many conflicting counter messages about the virus out there which are capable of swaying an already vulnerable population from the truth but we can continue to be notoriously successful through coherent messaging.
The population needs to continuously be urged to be on facemasks or go for vaccination because the current life saving measures which started on June 7, prominently saw many scenes from the public transport centres of people stampeding to go home. This virus has headed from Kampala to my village of Amukurat in Amuria District. Our people in villages, if well-equipped with the correct information, will together deliver Covid-19 a defeat in the foreseeable future.The war against Covid-19 in Uganda will not be lost in the health centres or pharmacies but on the different channels and modes of communication especially social media which spread conspiracy theories about the dangers of the vaccine and its attendant effects and the virus.
Joseph Epilu
