Concerted effort needed to remove COVID-19 stigma
The recent case of a Covid-19 positive patient who was found hiding at home in North Chennai and quietly trying out treatment at a private hospital, to evade being branded a “case” by the government health department, brings to the fore the stigma associated with this disease. The daily briefing by the health department is restricted to numbers; the positive cases and even deaths are not named. The idea is to protect the identity of the individual so that he/she and the families are not ostracised by the people around them.
On April 8, a man from Villupuram who had tested positive went missing. The health department passed on the baton of responsibility to the police force to track him down. The police, on their part, have been circulating details of the man, with his name and photograph, on social media platforms and even during their patrols to help get leads from people. A few state governments in India have issued a directive under Section 2 of the Epidemic Disease Act, 1897, and cited Rule 17 of the guidelines issued by the Press Council of India to not name the patients.
According to Poynter’s guidelines, if the media does want to name a patient without his/her permission for public health reasons, the newsperson needs to check first with the public health official in charge of the locality where the exposure may have happened. So that is what the Villupuram police have done, as the missing person may be infecting people he comes in contact with. There needs to be a concerted effort to destigmatise this disease to help ensure cooperation from patients. After all, the virus has not spared anyone with even British PM Boris Johnson testing positive.
Top leaders in India, apart from public service messages on the virtues of social distancing, need to mobilise opinion on the need to disconnect the stigma from this disease to make sure people reveal that they have symptoms. This will ensure community-level awareness, removal of fear and willingness to accept Covid-19 as a disease that can be treated if patients come forward and are selfless enough to ensure others do not contract it from them.