We can’t fight COVID-19 in fear - Dr Leticia Appiah
The Executive Director of the National Population Council, Dr Leticia Adelaide Appiah, has said that Africa, and therefore Ghana, may not experience terrible cases of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) as seen in Asia and Europe.
She has, hence, called for calm and responsible behaviour on the part of all residents.
Advertisement
Dr Appiah said “something seems to be playing positive for us” and that could be the many vaccines and anti-retroviral drugs we have already been introduced to.
No fear
In an interview in Accra yesterday, Dr Appiah said: “We cannot fight the virus in fear. There is no vaccine yet and it is our body’s immunity which will defend us; how do we go to such a war in fear?” she asked rhetorically.
The physician and public health specialist said the eight deaths recorded in six weeks since the first cases of the coronavirus were recorded in the country gave hope that “we are not likely to have high mortalities like elsewhere.”
Dr Appiah, however, called for strict observation of the protocols of regular handwashing under running water, using hand sanitisers and maintaining social distance of a metre or longer.
No way for stigma
On stigmatisation, Dr Appiah explained that: “It is the lack of information about the virus which is causing fear and resulting in such stigma and called for more education to reduce it.
“We need to let people know that the virus is protein which needs cells to propagate and, therefore, our bodies become the vehicle for them to live and transmit, just like ‘trotros’ carry us to where we want to go,” she explained.
Context
Her call to deal with stigma comes a day after the Director-General of the Ghana Health Service, Dr Patrick Kuma Aboagye, stressed that stigmatisation should not be given a place in the fight against COVID-19 because contracting the disease was not a disgrace or a death sentence.
Other Trending Stories
He said affected persons had high chances of recovery if cases were reported early.
The director-general said people without the disease could also reduce their risks to the barest minimum if they adhered to outlined preventive measures and so “we only have to stay safe rather than stigmatising people.”
Dr Appiah said the outbreak itself “should be a wake-up call for us to put our house in order”, adding that there was the need to strengthen the country’s fragile healthcare system, improve technology and internet penetration to cover the whole country, so that every village can benefit, for instance, from the ‘virtual education’.
Everyone everywhere
She said if the efforts failed to include everyone everywhere, the country would only be widening the inequality gap.”
“The new coronavirus is nature’s way of making us set things right and do something for the next generation,” Dr Appiah stated.
Background
As of last Tuesday, Ghana had recorded 636 COVID-19 cases.
Out of the number, 17 have been treated, reverted to negative on repeat tests and discharged; 605 cases have been categorised as mild disease and are on treatment and two are categorised as moderate to severe cases.
There was none in critical state, although eight have died.
Of the 636 confirmed COVID-19 cases, 268 were reported from the routine surveillance, 253 from enhanced surveillance activities and 115 from travellers under mandatory quarantine in Accra and Tamale.