Financial and mental stress; the ignored Covid-19 after effects

“After two weeks of intense breastfeeding, the baby got better. I always wore my mask while breastfeeding her and ensured that I sanitised or washed my hands after nursing her because the rest of the family members were negative,” Edith says. 

Mugera’s elderly mother who also lives with them, then developed a dry cough, body weakness and chest pain. 

“The test confirmed that she was positive. Her case was severe and by the time we reached hospital, her oxygen concentration was at 85 per cent and could barely breathe given her old age,” Edith says of her mother-in-law.

At the hospital, the patient needed an oxygen cylinder. The treatment procedure would cost Shs1.5m every day. 

“This was the cheapest option at that time. In fact, we were told to pay Shs3m before the patient was started on any treatment because of the risks involved,” she says. 

Day-by-day, the bill increased and the accountant constantly reminded them of their debt. 

After a week, they owed the hospital about Shs10m in medical bills. They started selling off some of their property they thought was not essential. 

The television and their gas cooker went first.

“Luckily, the patient was improving but when our bill got to more than Shs25m we thought of asking that the patient be discharged. We were of the view that we would bring her daily as an outpatient because she was not yet well,” Mugera says.

Eventually the Mugeras had to sell off most of their property including a car and house in order to pay off the debts accumulated from the hospital bills.

Besides the financial pinch, three months after testing negative, Mugera’s mother still gets chest pain especially when she tries to breathe in as an after effect of the disease. 

Yet she is not the only one.

Noah Mugoya, after three months of living Covid-19 free, still finds difficulty breathing. 

“There is lingering pain in the chest that is on and off. The pain is not as frequent as when I was sick but I am not as normal as it was before testing positive for the virus,” he says.

Case of multiple organ failure

According to Dr Irene Biraro, a respiratory physician and lecturer at Makerere University, people who had severe cases of the disease experience multi-organ effects over time with symptoms that can linger on for weeks or even months after healing and testing negative.

“One may get healed from the lab results but remain with residual effects depending on the severity of the disease since some of the body organs become damaged by the disease,” she says.

And since many people feared the expenses that come with the treatment of the disease, most of those who tested positive delayed to seek medical attention and instead resorted to herbal concoctions and steaming while the disease continued to progress to sensitive organs of the respiratory tract.

“Also, stigma led to a delay in seeking health care and by the time some of these people came to hospital, the lungs were badly ravaged and were almost failing,” Dr Biraro says. 

Depending on severity and the duration you have had the virus, one may or may not develop any after effects. 

“Critical disease can involve organ damage, acute respiratory distress syndrome, lung damage and other complications which may not go immediately and therefore, interfere with the chest physique and inability to expand the chest fully like it was before one contracted the virus,” she adds. 

According to the Centre for Disease Control (CDC), the virus can damage the lungs, heart and brain which increases the risk of long-term health problems and a fear that these may not go away for a long time although there are some people who do not develop any complications after healing.

The elderly and those with serious medical conditions such as diabetes and hypertension are most likely to have these post-Covid-19 conditions although it is also possible for the younger and healthier people to get them. The commonest of these include but are not limited to headaches, fever, fatigue, light headedness, mood changes, chest and joint pains, cough and shortness of breath, fast heartbeat, muscle pain, loss of taste or smell, and depression.

In some people, according to Dr Biraro, there was irrational use of some drugs especially dexamethasone with which people self-medicated even before they got the virus.  Some drugs which are steroids can affect the adrenal glands thereby causing blood sugar control and fertility issues.

She says, “In some families, since the testing was expensive, when only one person tested positive, the rest of the members started on medicine even before they confirmed they had the virus. These drugs only have to be taken under the instruction of qualified medical personnel because prolonged use can be detrimental to our health.”

The mental effects

Apart from organ failure, some patients get depressed, according to Evelyn Lufafa, a counselling psychologist. This is because even after the laboratory tests confirm that you are negative, when you tell people that you had the virus, they stigmatise you and may not want to associate with you,” she says. 

Adding: “This is enough trauma because you cannot interact freely with your colleagues. There are a lot of broken social networks. Some people still fear to make visits but they have to go to work.”

During the lock down, besides the people who were unable to go to their workplaces because of closed offices, one of the most vulnerable persons prone to trauma, depression and stress were the medical workers who were exposed to traumatic experiences of watching people die for lack of enough space and or directly contracting the virus.