Controversy

Editorial

Out of Nigeria’s sizeable population of coronavirus infections, Benue State (as at April 17) is credited with one case. But that record isn’t without a stiff challenge — and that challenge is coming from none other than the very individual concerned: Surprise! Surprise!

Susan Okpe, who Benue government cites as the state’s index case, is insisting she has not tested positive to the virus. She argues there was an error in the procedure of testing that showed her up as infected; and worse, that she is now being detained for purported medicare against her will and right to freedom.

London-based Mrs Okpe had visited Benue State in the third week of March for the funeral of her mother, and had sought medical attention at a private hospital in Makurdi after falling ill. Her condition reportedly attracted the attention of the Benue Committee on COVID-19, which subjected her to testing by the National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) from which verdict was returned that she was coronavirus positive. On March 28, Governor Samuel Ortom, in line with advice by the COVID-19 panel, unveiled the name and test result of the index case — much against the coronavirus management practice of the keeping cases’ names confidential.

Whereas she insisted she was okay, the state government moved Mrs Okpe from the private facility where she was, to the isolation and treatment centre at the Benue State University Teaching Hospital (BSUTH). Chairman of the state COVID-19 committee and Benue State Deputy Governor, Benson Abounu, on March 30, said it took nearly seven hours of persuading Mrs Okpe for that to happen. He publicly bemoaned alleged lack of cooperation by the patient with the state government’s efforts to trace her contacts.

On April 4, Benue Health Commissioner, Sunday Ongbabo announced that the Federal Ministry of Health requested the state to transfer Mrs Okpe to Abuja and it had obliged. The request to move the patient to Abuja was reportedly informed by her insistence she wasn’t ill and alleged refusal to cooperate with the medical team at the BSUTH.

Last week, Mrs Okpe escalated her narrative by posting a short video on social media in which she accused the Federal Government of holding her in incarceration. She said she was pleading with everybody to “tell Nigerian government to let me go (as) this is my 16th day of incarceration,” adding: “What have I done? Benue State lied (against) me that I have COVID-19. I just got the result yesterday after 15 days and the result is a stage play with different date, birthday – different recordings which they themselves know and (are) trying to put right.”

The contention by Mrs Okpe, against the backdrop of her citation as Benue’s index case, is an intriguing negation of the maxim that he who wears the shoe best knows where it pinches. Medical evidence, going by official narrative, indicates she is coronavirus positive, whereas she denies that she is. And so strong is her conviction that she reportedly is spurning being treated for the alleged medical condition.

Ordinarily, she should be in the best position to know what ails her. But if there is certitude of science that she is ill though she argues otherwise, then it is in her own best interest and collective interest of society that she gets treated until she tests negative to the virus.

Part of the problem could be the penchant to stigmatise patients. This Benue case should be an eye opener to the folly of that tendency. Going forward, all parties concerned must be careful not to sensationalise this matter and rather be concerned for the primacy of life.

The overriding objective should be to apply all strategies, including concessions warranted to win the patient’s confidence in the healthcare system and bring her to terms with the need to be made well.

This is a public health issue, with sociological dimension, different from technical medicine with cold facts. Mutual confidence must be the watchword.