The Sunday Mail
Fatima Bulla
Dealing with the grief of losing a loved one is onerous, but has been stigmatised for it is tragic.
This is exactly what a Glen Norah family has had to deal with after they recently lost a family member to the coronavirus.
Apparently, their personal details and contacts were leaked through social media after their heart-wrenching ordeal.
The WhatsApp chats, which circulated a fortnight ago, warned residents to be wary of the family members from the high-density suburb who had supposedly been in contact with the deceased.
It took efforts by officials from the Harare City Council (HCC)’s department of health, who were following up on the families, to allay fears that had been stoked in the community.
A neighbour of one of the families told The Sunday Mail that so serious was the stigma that people in the neighbourhood went to elaborate lengths to try and avoid interacting with the affected family members, who, however, had tested negative for the deadly virus.
“People even stare at you wondering where you are getting the courage to stand at the gate after such news,” said the neighbour.
A brother of the deceased, who refused to be named because of the sensitivity of the matter, said the trauma that had been caused by the leaked family information was indescribable.
Ironically, the information also began doing the rounds after health officials had visited the home at the invitation of the family, who felt duty-bound to notify the authorities.
“There is a lot of false information which went around through WhatsApp. And you find that even my photograph, which was captured somewhere else and had nothing to do with my late brother was attached to those chats.
“Imagine, I am mourning my brother and now I have to be traumatised like this again. Seriously, I cannot talk,” he said.
The pandemic has infected more than two million people around the world and had claimed about 150 000 lives by yesterday.
The sheer scale of lives that are being affected by the disease has left billions of people living in fear of contracting Covid-19.
A member of the Rapid Response Team, who was involved in awareness campaigns in Glen Norah, said ignorance about the virus was fuelling both fear and stigma.
“Rumour had seemingly gone around that the house was the place where one of the people that died from Covid-19 was residing. So we had to gather everyone and they responded well.
“They have a WhatsApp group, which circulates general information about their area, including Covid-19 news. Their councillor is in that group too. So it seems the councillor had also said something pertaining to this issue. So we also had a discussion with him and he had to visit the family affected. We managed to talk to him . . .” said the health official, who we cannot name as he is not authorised to speak on behalf of Harare City Council or the department of health.
“What I saw is people didn’t have information regarding our visit to the house. They thought there was a person with Covid-19 there. That’s when we realised that there was a need to educate one another.”
Information leaks
But there is growing fear that officials that are being entrusted with critical personal information are irresponsibly leaking it, which places concerned individuals and families at risk.
This is worryingly causing more harm than good. Also, it might as well be in contravention of the Public Health Act, which guarantees the confidentiality of persons dealing with health officials.
Cases of leaked identities of people with Covid-19 and their contacts have been on the increase. Names, physical addresses and identity particulars continue to be leaked mainly through social media platforms much to the distress of the people and families concerned.
The irresponsible manner in which the identity of a positive case in Bulawayo was circulated on social media is a case in point. Often, people who get tested for Covid-19 discover their status through social media, causing unnecessary panic as those involved would not have been counselled.
Because the unverified information reveals the positive person’s contact and their personal details, stigmatisation naturally follows.
The socio-psychological trauma is often described as unbearable.
Falsehoods
A fortnight ago, a statement purportedly signed by President Mnangagwa announcing the extension of the 21-day national lockdown circulated on social media although nothing of that sort had been officially released.
The statement was dismissed by the President himself, who said peddlers of such falsehoods risked going to prison for up to 20 years.
Dr Admire Mare, a senior lecturer at the Namibia University of Science and Technology, said social media was a double-edged sword, which empowers people to disseminate information, while, on the other hand, it can be used to promote evil.
He added that the fact people use pseudonyms on such platforms made it difficult to pin their identities to some of the transgressions.
“People must know before sharing information that they must think and reflect deeply about it. Some information is very sensitive to the point that when you share, it causes more harm than good.
“Sharing information should not be about wanting to be the first to break the news, be your neighbour’s keeper. Issues around our ethics, humanity and ubuntu are at stake here. The more we share information that has negative consequences on the well-being of a family, already we are becoming the enemy of society,” he said.
Efforts by media platforms like Facebook to push users to use their real identities could solve the problem.
Last week, Google revealed that it was blocking an average of 18 million coronavirus scam e-mails daily.
