By Doreen Nsiimire Gonahasa

When a strange new virus first reported in Wuhan, China, started to spread across the world, many countries, including Uganda, implemented measures to control importation.

Uganda enhanced screening of travellers at border points, especially the airport. Here, as a public health worker, my work addressing the pandemic began. I supervised the team that ensured 24-hour screening, including taking the temperatures of incoming travellers, taking travel history, and collecting contact information while in Uganda for follow-up. We continued this for about two months, all working in 12-hour shifts before more stringent measures were put in place, including mandatory quarantine of travellers from countries considered as high risk. Beyond working the odd hours, we dealt with insults from angry returnees, the chaos of coordinating transport to quarantine sites, dealing with VIPs who thought themselves too special to be quarantined, and many other challenges.  

Late on the night of March 20, 2020, we went about our normal business at the airport, screening all inbound travellers. One of the staff noticed an alert on the thermal scanner screen from a gentleman entering the airport. We rapidly moved to shift the man, who was returning home from the UAE, aside in a temporary isolation area, and monitored his temperature. Despite it being a cold and rainy night, the man had a persistently high temperature till the wee hours of the morning. At 8:00 am, we finally managed to get an ambulance to evacuate him to Entebbe Grade B hospital for testing. On March 21, Uganda confirmed its first case after this gentleman tested positive by PCR for COVID-19. On March 22, after an additional three cases were detected, the airport was closed to commercial passenger travel.  This was later followed by other measures including a total lockdown.

As a frontline responder, I continued my work to counteract COVID-19, including training district health staff and health workers about COVID-19 and conducting case investigations and contact follow up. This meant constant exposure to high-risk people and constant fear of becoming infected. Occasional tests and the anxiety of waiting for results after knowing how close I had been to someone that turned positive often kept me on my toes. However, this did not stop me from doing what I had to do. Work had to go on.

Uganda, following the measures and efforts put in place, managed to maintain a comparatively low transmission rate of COVID-19 through later 2020. The first major wave of COVID-19 hit the country in late 2020, affecting many thousands of people and causing hundreds of deaths. Cases declined in late December, and the New Year in 2021 saw the country with very few cases until May 2021. The second major wave thought to be fuelled by the introduction of new variants, entered with a bang. School children were heavily affected, and school closures that brought infected children home spread the disease to all areas. Many succumbed to the illness. After avoiding the infection for more than a year, I, too, had finally run out of luck.

On the night of June 1, 2021, in a hotel room in Fort Portal, I thought I finally knew what hallucinations felt like: fever, chills, tossing and turning over a long night. When morning finally came, I asked to be taken to the hospital for a malaria test, since I had the typical signs and symptoms of malaria. Instead, a COVID-19 RDT was done in my room. In less than 15 minutes, the specialist told me I was positive for COVID-19. Even for a person who knows how the illness presents, I was in denial; I kept saying it possibly couldn’t be COVID-19. Reality set in when the symptoms got worse, including loss of smell and taste. I immediately started on treatment. Atop the treatment came many recommendations from family, friends and colleagues: steaming, a mix of stuff to drink, doing exercises, getting a pulse oximeter to monitor your oxygen levels, getting a nebulizer to help relieve your lungs… Some of these I took up while others I dismissed, but importantly, I did stay isolated and ensured my mask was on if I had to see people (at a safe distance). While the chills and fever went out after a day, the headache lingered for a couple of days. I had a cough and a stuffy nose for about two weeks while my sense of smell only started to return after 3 weeks.  All this while, newsfeeds were filled with stories of people dying. Young, old, friends, colleagues, health workers! It seemed to get worse by the day.

Two weeks later, certain I was finished with the virus, I wanted to return to work and I went to take a test. Imagine the shock in my eyes when I was told I was still positive. Why would a tiny thing thrive in my body for so long? But here I am now, a whole lot better and grateful to God. It is very unfortunate that we have lost many to this illness among many others but choosing to hope that things will get better.

With cases still on the rise, the government has moved to enforce another lockdown to try to slow down the infection rate. Let us be vigilant and protect one another.

Here are some ways to protect yourself and/or prevent the spread of COVID-19:

• Clean your hands often using soap and water, or an alcohol-based hand rub
• Cover your nose and mouth with your bent elbow or a tissue when you cough or sneeze.
• Maintain a safe distance from anyone who is coughing or sneezing
• Wear a mask when in the company of others
• Don’t touch your eyes, nose or mouth.
• Stay home if you feel unwell
• If you have a fever, cough and difficulty breathing, seek medical attention
• Consider taking that vaccine (you may have been hesitant to)

The writer is a field epidemiologist, Ministry of Health