At times like these, as people are fighting the coronavirus epidemic, they’re also constantly chasing information on whether there was a new confirmed case of an infected person.
However, as much as one would want to know the person’s name, or see the person’s face, the institution in charge of handling the epidemic, Rwanda Biomedical Center (RBC) in this case, only provides a tip of the layer; that is the person’s nationality and his/her itinerary.
But the question of ethics of disclosure still surfaces, especially that Covid-19 is deadly and is easily transmitted.
Taking a simple scenario, let’s imagine Claude (a name picked randomly) has a personal doctor and works in a firm of 50 people. What would be the procedures of disclosure in case his doctor finds out that he presents Covid-19 symptoms during a random checkup?
According to Health Development Initiative's (HDI) Diane Uwamariya, the doctor has an obligation to notify RBC.
"In case the doctor finds out that Claude presents Coronavirus symptoms, (s)he is under the obligation to report it to RBC because withholding such information could spread the virus and put a lot of people in danger,” Uwamariya explained.
RBC handles the announcement of confirmed cases
Upon finding out that Claude is positive, RBC handles the remaining part.
When the results are positive, Dr Jose Nyamusore- Head of Epidemic Surveillance Division at RBC- said, we notify the management which then decides on how to communicate within the firm according to their internal management while also preventing stigma.
"As we trace back the patient’s itinerary, we also don’t specify names as well as when we inform the public about new confirmed cases," Dr Nyamusore explained.
Asked whether Claude can deliberately announce that he has been infected with Coronavirus, Umariya answered that the first step-upon experiencing symptoms of Coronavirus- should be to call 114 adding: "if Claude is found positive, he is then quarantined and then RBC takes care of the rest; that includes tracing his itinerary and announcing to the public".
Currently, COVID-19-has now been documented in more than 170 countries and territories around the world. Over 200,000 cases have now been documented, resulting in more than 8,000 deaths. In Rwanda, there are eight confirmed cases with no death registered up to now.
The best protection against coronavirus and preventing its spread is by constantly washing hands with soap and the use of alcohol-based hand sanitizers where washing hands is not applicable.