#SolidarityNotStigma

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https://www.who.int/images/default-source/wpro/health-topic/covid-19/slide3db93ad97a57843d6aaa88798dec07be7.jpg?sfvrsn=f9ebeea6_2

[iimtcollege]

Anyone can contract #coronavirus regardless of race, gender, age or other personal qualities. #SolidarityNotStigma fights the spread of #COVID19 . https://www.iimtindia.net/campaign-epaper2/ 9717015300, 9911009144 . . #NAACaccreditedcollegesingreaternoida #IndiaFightsCorona #SwasthaBharat #CoronaOutbreak #TogetherAgainstCovid19 #BadalkarAnaVyavaharKareinCoronaParVaar #Topprivatecollegesinuptu2020 #TopBE_BtechcollegesinGreaterNoida #EngineeringCollegesinGreaterNoidaacceptingUPSEE #TopBTechcollegesinGreaterNoida2020 #IIMTCollegeofEngineeringGreaterNoida #StudyInDelhiNCR2020 #aktutoptenmanagementcollegeindelhincr #ComputerScienceEngineeringinDelhiNCR #BestBTechplacementsinDelhiNCR #Dream #Career #Placements #top10managementcollegeofaktu #top10managementcollegesinup #top10managementcollegesofaktu #Btechadmissionopen2020 #BestEngineeringCollegeinDelhiNCR #bestartificialintelligencecourse #engineeringapplicationsofartificialintelligence #artificialintelligencebtechcourse #AKTUadmissiongreaternoida2020 #IIMTBtechadmissionope

[thecoronachronicles]

What We’ve Found: The Stigma Around COVID-19

The Coronavirus has made people frightened and concerned about their health and their loved ones’. We’ve tried to reach out to people who were infected by corona or lost a family member as a result of it, but we couldn’t due to the sensitivity and the arising stigma around the disease. 

Rumors and misinformation about the disease have been rising rapidly in the last couple of weeks, in addition to fake statistics that made people more worried than they already are.

The stigma has been associated with anyone infected by coronavirus and according to Mayo Clinic, “people of Asian descent have been treated with suspicion and blamed for COVID-19, even though they're no more likely to spread the virus than is the general population.”

In Egypt, it is currently normal for a family to hide the fact that their son or daughter tested positive for the virus. Them being contagious is negatively perceived in the Egyptian society, accordingly they are blamed and shamed in a hurtful way. This, more often than not, creates hardships that hinders responding to the pandemic. 

Stigmatized groups might be excluded from social situations even after recovery, they may even lose their jobs and could be targets to emotional abuse.

In order to know more about the stigma around coronavirus, we asked people on social media: “Do you think there is a stigma around being infected with coronavirus? And if yes, why do you think this stigma exists.”

The comments we got from social media users showed us the reason behind not being able to reach out to infected cases, or even cases that had recovered. 

“A nurse I interviewed told me that people sometimes treat her badly or disrespectfully because they think she is more likely to be a carrier,” Amina A. Zeineldine, writer at Egyptian Streets said. 

Islam Faissal agreed to what Zeineldine said, where he added that stigma exists irrationally against infected people, but even more irrationally against people working in the medical field. 

Another comment by Sherif Khaled, IMC student, said that families might hide if there is a “suspected case” in their homes. 

“I think it is almost always due to a fear of getting infected, but also there is a misconception that if you got it, it is because you were irresponsible.”

According to NBC News, stigma around a disease can be one of the most powerful barriers of treatment and care towards “the most vulnerable.”

Stigma towards patients can lead to self-stigma, which is basically arousing feelings of guilt and shame of having a disease that might be passed to the loved ones. 

In regards to that, World Health Organization (WHO) created an online awareness campaign to raise people’s awareness about this stigma and how to deal with it, under the hashtag #SolidarityNotStigma and #TogetherWeCan. 

One of the campaign's posts stated that stigma due to #coronavirus leads to reduction in people seeking medical care or getting tested as well as reduction in people adhering to interventions. This often leads to cases not getting reported which would make the outbreak worse.