Nurse Who Survived COVID-19, Reveals How Neighbours Stigmatise Her Family

File photo

A nurse in Liberia, who was infected with COVID-19, Sedia Marwolo, said her family is planning on relocating from where they stay due to stigmatisation from neighbours.

Marwolo, who was 32 weeks pregnant when she was forced into intensive care by the pandemic, told AFP that carrying a child and having the virus is like ‘hell.’

“The stigmatisation is another hell for any victim of this virus to go through,” Marwolo said.

“It is like a curse. We are even planning to leave the community.” 

The 38-year-old nurse said one day she was sacked from work without explaination by her employers.

She said other staff soon informed her that her supervisors had been infected with Coronavirus.

Marwolo decided to get tested and her result returned positive.

She was then taken into intensive care and fretted for the child in her womb.

“I was like in hell, alone, and abandoned,” she said. “To be pregnant and find yourself in a Coronavirus ICU is terrible.”

Reports say pregnant women were forced to give birth on the streets as hospitals refused them access during the ebola outbreak, which killed over 4,000 people.

The United Nations Population Fund stepped in to help medical facilities deal with COVID-19 infected women in the country this time around.

Marwolo gave birth to a COVID-19 negative baby girl, one of her three children, and her husband tested positive but has now recovered though.