Family of Durban nurse who tested positive for Covid-19 is being bullied
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Coronavirus. Coronavirus.
Durban - The family of a Durban nurse who tested positive for the coronavirus is being stigmatised by her community.
The nurse, 34, who works at Addington Hospital, allegedly contracted the virus from an agency nurse who visited the hospital last week.
Agency nurses provide direct care to patients and administer medication or treatment. They usually collaborate with other care providers and nursing staff to help patients.
Tests were conducted but the staff returned home while awaiting the results.
On Friday, when the results came back positive, officials from the Department of Health picked her up at her home near Shallcross to be quarantined at Addington Hospital.
Other staff at the hospital who tested positive were also placed in quarantine.
When neighbours in Pinetown, where her mother and other family live, found out she had contracted the virus, they began victimising the family.
The nurse has two children.
Her younger son stays with her partner in a different area while her teenage son lives with his grandmother in Pinetown.
Her mother, 66, said the community began insulting and threatening them with violence.
“People are swearing and screaming at us. They told us they will burn down our home and smash our windows. This is out of our control. We didn’t ask for this to happen. It is a worldwide pandemic. How can they blame us?”
She said when her son and grandson went to the tuckshop over the weekend, a group of men harassed them.
“They asked them what they were doing on the road and said they were supposed to be at home because they have the virus. They forced them to go home.”
She said people needed to understand that her daughter was an essential service worker and risked her life every day so others could sit safely at home.
“Their actions are inhumane. Doctors and nurses are heroes for helping save lives. To stigmatise innocent people is plain ignorance. Imagine if this happened to their daughters. How would they feel?”
The mother said none of the children or close family had been tested. She said nurses assured them they were fine.
She said her daughter phoned every day to keep her updated on her condition.
“Though she tested positive, she did not show symptoms of the virus. The doctors told her she had a strong immune system. She will be in quarantine for 14 days before being retested.”
The mother said she was comforted by the feedback the doctors had given her daughter.
“I feel at peace knowing she is okay.”
She pleaded with the community to leave them alone and to learn more about what was going on, instead of trying to harm and threaten them.
The nurse’s cousin posted a message on a Facebook community group asking residents to stop victimising the family.
The cousin wrote: “To all you forward people of my cousin has tested positive for Covid-19 which she got from a nurse She is under quarantine in the hospital where she was saving lives while the rest of us sit in our homes relaxing.
“She called me now and as a family, this is stressful for us and we are trying to come to terms with it Anyone who further discriminates we will charge you. She put her life at risk helping others, even if she dies, she will die a hero to her family, her patients and South Africa.”
The stigmatization of those who have tested positive is a growing problem. It was addressed by President Cyril Ramaphosa in his address to the nation on April 9.
He said: “At all times, we will observe the human rights of all people. Let us not discriminate against people who test positive.”
Doctor Sherona Rawat, a clinical psychologist, said there was a stigma attached to Covid-19 patients due to lack of knowledge and sometimes misinformation.
“This illness calls for us to look inwards, take charge of our health and well-being by following all the required safety protocols, strengthening
our immune system and having compassion for others.”
She said people needed to change their focus to the number of recoveries instead of the number of infections.
“In this way people will change their focus from fear of being infected to a more altruistic way of thinking, which is helping all of us as a nation recover and beat this illness.”
In a previous statement, Ntokozo Maphisa, a spokesperson for the
KwaZulu-Natal Department of Health, said in cases where healthcare professionals may be infected, the government was obliged to provide the necessary care and treatment.
“Mapping and tracing of their contacts are also conducted so they, too, can be screened and tested, in order to curb the further spread of the virus. Furthermore, the affected section of the hospital may be closed to allow for decontamination as part of the Infection and prevention and control process, and then re-opened once this is over.
“The above is normal procedure that applies to healthcare workers and facilities across the board, including at Addington Hospital.”
The hospital and the Department of Health had not commented by the time
of publication.
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