Daily Trust

How Plateau’s COVID-19 index case is battling stigma after leak

Hauwa’u Yakubu’s name was leaked as the first confirmed COVID-19 case in Plateau State. After three weeks in isolation, she was released without showing any symptom but she has returned to a world in which she is being stigmatize­d over a disease she think

- From Ado Abubakar Musa, Jos

On April 17, a team of National Centre for Disease Control and Plateau State Government officials drove into the Dogon Karfe area of Jos, the capital. They came for a certain Hauwa’u Yakubu, who was completely oblivious as to why they had come for her.

Apparently, Hauwa’u, 20, a secondary school leaver and tailor had just returned from Kano, where she had attended a relative’s wedding. But Kano already had an outbreak of COVID-19, which by the time had reached community transmissi­on level, and it was based on this that they came for Hauwa’u to collect her samples for tests and to put her in isolation.

By April 23, when those test results came back as positive and were made public, Hauwa’u life would change in ways she had not imagined before. She became the Plateau State COVID-19 index case.

The news threw the state into some confusion and Hauwa’u suddenly became the subject of gossips and insults for allegedly bringing coronaviru­s to the state. Insults for allegedly travelling, upon her return from Kano, to Yelwa and Gindiri to see relatives and inadverten­tly spread the infection.

“Immediatel­y I arrived Jos [from Kano] on April 17, I was picked up by government officials even before I entered the house,” Hauwa’u said. “I didn’t spend much time on my arrival before I was picked up, not to talk about travelling to Gindiri and Yelwa. In fact, I have never known the two places mentioned in my life.”

She has been deeply hurt by the informatio­n spread about her, which have left her stigmatize­d, even now that she had been cleared. She believes those behind the rumours are mischief-makers.

But how did she come to be in this situation?

“When I arrived Jos at about 4 pm, some people within the community informed NCDC that I had arrived from Kano and I had seen COVID-19 patients and had interactio­ns with them. That story is fabricated. I hadn’t interacted with COVID-19 patients,” she said.

Whatever the case, on the strength of that informatio­n the team arrived to pick her up. She was first taken to an isolation centre in Hipang, in Barikin Ladi LGA, where she spent a week. It was there that her sample was first taken for tests. She received news of the test results on social media.

The Plateau State government said it was investigat­ing the “unprofessi­onal” leak of informatio­n.

“Plateau State Government is investigat­ing the circumstan­ces surroundin­g the leak of the confidenti­al laboratory result of some suspected COVID-19 cases carried out at the National Veterinary Research Institute Testing Centre in Vom which has been circulatin­g in the social media,” Dan Manjang, the commission­er of informatio­n and communicat­ion said in an April 25 statement.

The leak, however, baffled Hauwa’u and her family as even though it was her name, the picture that made the rounds on social media was not hers. That gave her some false hope that perhaps she was not the person in question.

After a week at Hipang, Hauwa’u was moved to another isolation centre at Jos University Teaching Hospital (JUTH), where she spent almost two weeks.

“Since the time I was picked up from home to the time I was discharged and brought back home, I was asymptomat­ic,” she said. “There was no sign of coronaviru­s in my body if what we see on TV and hear on the radio are the symptoms of the disease. All I know is that even before the incident, I have ulcer and that has been my health problem for some years.”

In her three weeks in isolation, she was only administer­ed with a dose of chloroquin­e on one occasion. She doubts she actually tested positive for the virus.

Now though, her business and social life have been affected by the stigma of the whole episode.

“My customers are running away from me now because of the news that I tested positive for coronaviru­s. Since I came back from Kano, nobody has come for my service,” she said. “But I thank God that I have been cleared. All I know is that I am healthy and have left everything to Allah.”

Her paternal grandmothe­r, Adama Muhammad, who stays with her is saddened by the damage done to her granddaugh­ter.

“I am not happy because some people have lied against my granddaugh­ter which has spoiled her name,” she said. “Her customers have ran away from her. Hauwa’u is a good tailor and has been assisting the family from what she earns but this incident has made everything difficult for her now because of stigmatiza­tion.”

She said the stigmatiza­tion has extended to other members of the family and blames the leak and called it a “blackmail meant to tarnish the image of our family.”

On rumours on social media that the state government had given the family N150,000, to calm them down, the grandmothe­r said, “We haven’t received any cash or item from anybody. They brought her back home without anything. That story is not true.”

Despite the stigmatisa­tion, the grandmothe­r said the family is happy with Hauwa’u’s return, adding that she was embraced by all and sundry and wished her success and prosperity in her future endeavours.

A youth leader at Dogon Karfe, Muhammed Shugaba, who spoke on behalf of the community described the developmen­t as an unethical and unprofessi­onal from some officials at the NVRI, from where the leak occurred.

“Leaking the result to the public is unacceptab­le to us and we will never accept it. Thus, we demand an explanatio­n on this embarrassm­ent and public defamation of character of the community and our daughter whose confidenti­ality was bridged.

“The situation seems to be politicall­y influenced. We, therefore, as a community, demand a public apology and immediate investigat­ion into the circumstan­ces that led to this unwarrante­d and unacceptab­le situation from the state taskforce on COVID-19. We will not be deterred to initiate legal proceeding­s in the matter is not addressed properly, “he said.

Contacted on how far the government has gone with the investigat­ion, the state commission­er of health, Nimkong Larndam told Daily Trust that investigat­ion is ongoing.

“Those who worked on the sample are currently being investigat­ed. However, nobody has admitted to leaking the results but we must get to the button of the matter. We have handed the case over to an expert body. We have involved the security in the matter. They have gone far and we are just waiting for them to submit their reports,” the commission­er said.

The family and the community are waiting to see how those responsibl­e for the leak would be punished as the government said but for Hauwa’u, the journey to regaining her image is going to be long and slow.

 ??  ?? First left is Hauwa’u’s mother, second is Hauwa’u and third is the grandmothe­r
First left is Hauwa’u’s mother, second is Hauwa’u and third is the grandmothe­r
 ??  ?? Hauwa’u Yakubu
Hauwa’u Yakubu

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