A COVID-19 patient who is currently being held in isolation at the Infectious Diseases Isolation Centre at the Ridge hospital in Accra has called on Ghanaians not to treat patients of the virus with disdain during and after their treatment.
According to him, any show and acts of discrimination or stigmatization against persons infected with the Corona Virus will lead to the discouragement of voluntary testing which will eventually spell doom for the country in the fight against the spread of the virus.
The patient is among the 16 confirmed coronavirus infected persons who are currently receiving care in isolation in Ghana as of Friday, March 20, 2020.
In a telephone interview on Joynews TV from his isolation room monitored by Ghanawish.com, the 35 year old Ghanaian said people must be encouraged to voluntarily test for the virus in order to ensure early detection and to reduce the rate of spread.
“This is something that we are all fighting, it is not an individual thing but a collective effort. Some of us sacrificed by coming out to let Ghanaians know that this is the state of our country. To come out and say I have the virus is not an easy thing. We know how some Ghanaians react when even you have fever in your family or when someone is sick. Someone must come out at a point and let people know what is truly going on and some of us have volunteered to do so. Now, there are situations where people who have come out are being stigmatised and discriminated against by society. I believe we have to put a stop to that. When we begin to do that, then we are simply telling people who have the disease not to come out” he said.
He intimated that government’s efforts at containing the spread and devastation of the virus will suffer a setback and may take Ghana more than 10 years to overcome the situation if people are not encouraged to voluntarily test or openly admit their conditions.
He added that “Just like the way we all support the Black Stars when we are playing World Cup, we have to support our brothers who have found themselves in this situation. I don’t think it is in the interest of us who have got the virus to go out there and bring the disease into the country. Someone like me I was on official assignment. I didn’t travel on my own to France for tourism or any other thing but I went there on an official assignment. If I have come from an official assignment and unfortunately I came with this particular virus, I have been bold enough to come out and say Ghanaians I have this so please help me out so that my brother or my sister out there would not be infected, I believe society should rather applaud me rather than stigmatise or discriminate against me”.
He disclosed that a list of all the people he came into contact with since his touch down from France has been made available to his employers and the Ghana Health Service.
