Frederick Drah, a patient infected with the novel coronavirus in Ghana says contracting the virus is not a death sentence.
According to him, there has been vast misinformation about the virus that has gone around, with many people portraying it be to a death sentence once you test positive.
Speaking in an interview with CitiTV’s Umaru Sanda, Frederick Drah said; “Currently, I am not afraid but in the initial stages, the way the information about the virus had gone around made it seem that when you’re tested positive, the following day, you’re going to die, but not knowing, when I came here to this treatment centre as the first to be tested positive, it was a different situation”
“So, my people out there should know that testing positive for COVID-19, despite it being a deadly virus, does not mean that you will die, nobody just dies like that,” he added.
Mr Drah after narrating his ordeal on how he got infected encouraged the public to desist from misinformation and stigmatization about the virus.
“I was picked up to the National Treatment Centre here at the Ga East Municipal Hospital and since I’ve been here, the nurses, doctors and healthcare workers have taken very good care of me. People have been coming in here and they’ve been tested, when nothing is found in them, they’re asked to go home,” he explained.
“As I am standing here, with the help of the doctors and nurses and the treatment they give us here, I am stronger than before,” Drah said.
Drah said he contracted the novel Coronavirus from a friend who arrived in the country from South Korea and visited him at his home earlier in February.
Since the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic, the lack of knowledge on the disease has fueled discrimination, misinformation and even racism, especially against Asian and African people.
For years, it was common for viral diseases to be associated with the landscapes, places or regions where the first outbreaks occurred.
But experts say continuing to stigmatize people who may be infected with the virus is rather irresponsible and needs to stop.
Source: ghanaweb.com
