By Mohamed Jaward Nyallay
The government of Sierra Leone has rejected calls to abandon its policy of protecting patients’ identity and release the names of all persons who contract the Coronavirus Disease.
Both President Julius Maada Bio and Minister of Health, Dr Alpha Tejan Wurie, said this policy would remain in place in respect of acceptable professional standards.
“We will not identify anyone’s name. We will cure them and send them back into the society. Except if someone voluntarily release their own name and picture and advice those he came in contact with to immediately go for tests,” President Bio said at a press conference at State House last week Wednesday.
Dr Wurie, for his part, said even in normal times, patient-doctor confidentiality is something that should not be broken.
“It is unethical to identify any patient with a disease. Corona is no different. The same professional standards should be kept,” he said.
Their comments come amidst a growing concern among some members of the public who say keeping the identities of infected people endangers the rest of the population by making it difficult for them to protect themselves. They also say this will make contact tracing difficult.
As of Saturday, Sierra Leone had recorded 10 cases of Covid-19. Even though the government has refused to identify them, pictures and names of some of the infected people have gone viral on social media.
The Emergency Operations Center (EOC) and the Ministry of Health have ran a good operation with contact tracing. But there are now questions being asked about the surveillance technique after two new cases of Saturday evening break self-isolation protocol and fled their homes in shock when their results came in positive.
Contact tracing for the two new cases have started since Sunday.
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