CMD Of Yaba Infectious Diseases Center Clears Air On Reports Of Him Contracting COVID-19

The Medical Director, Infectious Disease Hospital, Yaba, Dr Bowale Abimbola, has reacted to reports of him testing positive for COVID-19.

Earlier in the month, couple of tradition media outfits and online media platforms reported that the Dr Abimbola who treated the index COVID-19 case, an Italian expatriate, in Nigeria had tested positive.

Conversely, the media outfit could not directly ascertain from the doctor his COVID-19 Status as the reports only scantily quoted sources in the hospital.

However, in its bid to find out about the true situation of things, EkoHotBlog embarked on a fact-finding mission which involved interviewing Dr Abimbola himself.

In this part of the trenchant and open-minded interview with the Yaba Infectious Disease Centre helmsman, the seasoned doctor broke silence over the reports of him testing positive for COVID-19.

Also read: 98 Year Old Woman Recovers From COVID-19 In Lagos

Asked if reports in the media that he had tested positive for COVID-19 were true, Dr Abimbola answered in the affirmative, he confirmed to EkoHotBlog that he indeed tested positive for COVID-19, he said the COVID-19 test he took at the end of April returned positive and he subsequently went on self-isolation.

He, however, said he had since been treated, discharged and back at work

“About three weeks ago I started coughing and then I had fever, so I ran the COVID-19 test because I suspected that this is likely to be COVID-19, and it turned out to be positive. I was admitted, I was treated and I was discharged, here I’m today back at work, so having COVID-19 is not a death sentence so to say” He added.

He added that most of the patients that were  treated at the centre recovered, hence he was upbeat and optimistic about his recovery also.

On how worried should the populace be on the severity of COVID-19 when compared to other diseases in the malarial family with the same symptoms, Dr Abimbola noted that what the state is witnessing now is community transmission of COVID-19 from one person tí another, adding that cases of people coming into the country transmitting the disease had died down

“what we have now is community transmission,  the symptoms are similar to that of malaria, you could have cough, fever, bodyache, sore throat, breathlessness, some even suffer lose of taste, the symptoms actually varied, when somebody has any of this symptoms it is always good to do a test to ensure that it’s not COVID-19” he said.

On people’s perception that COVID-19 is a phony health scheme by the government to make money that the disease does not exist in Nigeria, and that even if does exist it is not as grave and severe as the government has made it seem, Dr Bowale said the government was doing enough to make sure proper information on the disease got to the people.

“Government is doing all it can to make sure proper information concerning coronavirus is disseminated to the people, government is using radio, it is using television and social media to communicate to our people, and there is a pillar in the Emergency Operation Centre(EOC) that the Lagos state government set up, so there is a section of the EOC that engages the public, they call them social mobilization. They go to communities markets to educate them about coronavirus. They meet people they do town all meetings, jingles on radio and TV so that people will know COVID-19 is real” he said

He added that many people will demand for pictures as evidence “but it is not possible to put pictures of patients on social media and pages of newspapers because you will be violating their privacy, but the hospitals are full and people have died, I think the social mobilisation might need to expand so that many people as possible can be reached so that they will have appropriate information”