Africa-Press – Uganda. Mr Gad Agaba, a software developer, is a person who on a daily basis does not mix with many people either at home in Bukoto or at work in Naguru, both Kampala suburbs. After protecting himself for long however, he got complacent and stopped following the standard operating procedures (SOPs).
Mr Agaba got Covid-19 towards the end of May 2021. Previously, he had been driving himself and not using public transport in a bid to reduce the chances of being exposed to the virus, when the country experienced its first wave.
When the second wave broke out in the country in May, Mr Agaba was using public transport and not paying attention to the presidential directives and the Ministry of Health set guidelines.
He resorted to using a motorcyclist to take him to work and bring him back home. So relaxed was he that he had even stopped wearing a mask. And then the symptoms began to set in. He started experiencing general body weakness.
“A day to the Idd celebrations, I interacted with friends and we also celebrated the following day. That night, I reached home and I felt hot. My temperature went up and I vomited the whole night. I also developed a fever. So I thought my stomach had a problem because it sometimes reacts to food,’’ he says.
The next day, Mr Agaba was supposed to attend a meeting but he did not join his colleagues because he had a fever, headache and a burning sensation in his eyes, something he thought was fatigue. By this time, he was really anxious about what was happening but he kept calm and avoided causing tension among his family and friends.On the third day, Mr Agaba lost his sense of taste and smell. It was now that he started suspecting he had a Covid-19 infection.
Testing
As the day went by, the tension kept mounting and he decided to research about what he was going through on the Internet. His search results indicated that Covid could be the cause of what he was experiencing. So, he rushed to the nearest clinic and carried out a rapid test, whose results were positive.
“I got so scared because I had seen people dying in India. Pictures of people carrying dead bodies were so worrying. I kept wondering if I had contracted the Indian variant because I had been meeting many people. Because I was able to account for all my movements, it was easy to trace where I could have gotten the disease from.
“I called my boda boda rider and he was coughing without knowing what had happened to him. I advised that he goes for testing because he said another client of his was also in the same state,” he recounts. Because of the fear and worry, Mr Agaba first hid in his house for two days as he took medication. However, there was no improvement, so he chose to open up and tell his landlord’s family about his situation.
“I opened up because I wanted them to be more careful since I was already on medication. On Wednesday the following week, I developed a terrible fever. I think my immunity had at that time lowered. I was advised to take panadol, which helped me,” he says.
The following days were harder for Agaba. He felt like he was withering and weakening and got severe cough. He would spend the whole day in bed. He later learnt that he had infected his landlady’s son with Covid-19 because they were staying together in one house. The news of the new infection in the homestead caused Mr Agaba’s landlady to get tougher, and ask everyone to take SOPs seriously.
Taming the disease
Mr Agaba and the landlady’s son now started on a serious medication regimen and improved nutrition as directed by medics in order to beat the disease.
“We would wake up in the morning, take breakfast, sun bathe and take our drugs on time, steam and get enough rest throughout the day. We fought the hard battle well knowing that we were victors in the end,” Mr Agaba narrates.
Mr Agaba wanted his friends, relatives and as many people to know how terrible Covid-19 was, so he took to his phone and shared the news of his infection, experience and measures that can be done to prevent further spreading. He asked his family to keep away since he was in isolation.
“I thought it was important to share information. I would go on WhatsApp and tell people about the signs and symptoms, how I was feeling and what they should do on a daily basis to be safe. I would later see some people responding positively and others negatively. It was a mixture of reactions,” he says.
Sharing of his status came with some element of stigmatisation because some people asked questions that were not encouraging, but instead irritated him.“One person asked me to tell them how many I had infected and I felt bad about it,” he shares.
But this did not stop him. By sharing his condition on his WhatsApp status, Agaba was convinced that a good number of people would realise how dangerous the disease is and take serious precaution.As the days went by, Mr Agaba’s condition became unpredictable because every day would come with its beautiful or ugly face, but he kept in isolation and followed advice from medics.
“People stood with me. Members from my landlord’s home would force me to walk around; my family and friends would reach me on phone and also send me some money on mobile money and give me a lot of support. I started getting some energy back,” he recollects.
Counting the impact
Mr Agaba says his body became so weak that he would struggle to go to the bathroom for a shower. Like many other patients, he could not taste the food and drinks he was given.At some point, he thought and feared that he was dying because of the weakening state of his health.
“My health deteriorated and I knew I was going to die. Communicating with my friends became so difficult. Every day came with its own challenges. At that time, I had no one to encourage me and I was worried of the outcome. I started making peace with God and everyone that had hurt me around that time. I didn’t know I would walk out. I reached a point and thought that things were getting out of hand,” he says.
Because of the coughing, Mr Agaba’s breathing and speech were affected. He has also developed memory loss and hallucinations.
“I think I have slept peacefully for one night. Other nights are full of bad and uncoordinated dreams and hallucinations, which disturb me a lot. I have been told that those are after effects of Covid-19,” he says.The disease also affected Agaba financially. He has in the last one month spent more than Shs1.5 million on medication and related expenses.
He, recently went for a rapid test, which he says by God’s grace was negative. He has since then stayed home to allow for a complete recovery. He is still on the road to full health, but he is using the available energy to send awareness messages to tell people that one can recover from Covid-19. This, he says has made his energy levels shoot up.
Taking the blame
In all this, Mr Agaba blames himself because he became reckless and took things for granted by refusing to adhere to guidelines even when the government was communicating.“Whenever government communicates, we tend to close our ears even when we are told by professionals in this business. When they said wear masks, some of us did not take it serious and we relaxed. For example, for me, I would sit on a boda boda motorcycle without a facemask and I would exchange money with the cyclist, and I took things for granted. I let myself down,” he says.
He advises those out there: “Today, I see many friends of mine going to bars. When government tells you not to go to bars, they are not stopping you from enjoying. They know you are going to mix with a lot of people whose status you don’t know. You will eventually pick up the disease, take it to your family and spread it and then you are going to put pressure on a health system which is not going to manage all of us.
“You don’t need to be in town all the time. If someone can deliver something for you, stay at home. Most people are working from home and because you don’t want to listen, you are going to bring the virus and infect your neighbours in the apartment because of your carelessness.
“I am not sure that if I got re-infected I would be able to beat that disease again. I became careless and this is where I am. I had to pay the price. Let us wear our masks, wash our hands and stay at home.”
