Social stigma and Covid-19

In spite of ceaseless talks in the media about preventive measures against the coronavirus, there is practically no mention of the superstition rife in our society and how it is playing out in the context of the unprecedented pandemic. A report in this newspaper has described several instances of how Covid-19 patients in Sindh are being shunned by society and even families and relations. A physician mentioned a patient in Korangi, Karachi, who was left on the roadside for fear that he might infect healthy members of his family. It is not known what became of this unfortunate man. Considering the dangerous level of superstition prevalent in our society, there might be other such persons whom fate has treated cruelly.

Such behaviour is common in underdeveloped areas though, even posh localities like Karachi’s Defence Housing Authority are not free from the superstition attached to the deadly coronavirus. People are avoiding interaction even with patients who have fully recovered from Covid-19 and having been certified by doctors as fully recovered. If this is the way society is treating recovered patients, the plight of patients who have are undergoing treatment can only be well imagined. They are being shunned by their own families and society like the plague. Families whose members are undergoing treatment for the disease and even those who have been declared fully disease-free are being treated as social pariah, something with whom social contact should be avoided at all costs.

Doctors have described the social stigma attached to the disease as a dangerous trend. They say coronavirus patients, like those suffering from any other disease, need empathy and not contempt. The whole society needs to work for elimination of the social stigma attached to Covid-19. The cruel attitude of society towards Covid-19 patients might compel people to kill themselves after having been diagnosed with the disease. This is a dangerous situation but wholly avoidable because the survival rate for the coronavirus is 98%.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 12^th, 2020.

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