Patients Avoiding Hospital in South Sudan for Fear of COVID-19, Nun at Facility Concerned

 “Unless they are really, really sick, they will be admitted just because they can’t escape, otherwise they don’t want hospital beds,” she said.

The Comboni Missionary nun explained that patients “first allow a doctor to write down everything and accept being taken to the ward and on reaching there, they escape.”

“They say they are going to get sicker’,” she recalled the words of her patients and added, “Many people who are now coming to the hospital are those who are very sick, who have tried oral treatment and they failed.”

“Normally what we do, if the staff knows the patient well, where they come from, we tell the staff to try and monitor them at home,” Sr. Jane Francis said, explaining an alternative service offered to the patients violating medical directives on admission.

Asked about the patients that left the 125-bed capacity hospital with serious sickness, the Ugandan-born nun explained the back and forth of some individuals.

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 “Some (patients) come back, and some never come because they feel ashamed and they think that maybe we shall be upset because they ran away,” she said.

The nun shared her work experience amid COVID19 crisis on International Nurses Day marked May 12, when the world celebrated the selflessness of caregivers during the pandemic.

In his May 12 tribute, Pope Francis praised nurses all over the world who he said "carry out this profession which is more than a profession; it is a vocation, a commitment."

"May the Lord bless them (nurses). In this time of pandemic, they have given an example of heroism (and) some have given their lives. Let us pray for nurses," Pope Francis said.

Nzara Hospital’s Medical Officer, Dr. Taban Charles Loponi linked the behavior of their patients to rumors surrounding the coronavirus disease.

“The challenge is a lot of rumors. Some feel that once you are admitted you will die and once you are dead, your family will not be allowed to see the body,” Dr. Loponi told ACI Africa.

He added, “As Africans, we treasure our dead bodies and that is the fear that once you are isolated, your relative may not access you when you die.”

“I think once people are given information, they can understand,” Dr Laponi said.

He explained that the focus of the hospital was also to prepare staff at the facility on the proper way to handle people who test positive for COVID-19.

“We aim to help them understand how to go about COVID-19 cases so that they don’t get (shocked) in case we have such a case in our hospital,” he said, and added, “If we don’t prepare them well, there is a possibility that once somebody is found positive for COVID 19, he will be neglected.”

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