By Basanta Parajuli
Bharatpur, Aug. 23: “My father used to insist me to leave my job every day out of fear for COVID-19. I knew that, one day, I would contract the disease. But still, I never thought about quitting. Who will serve if I leave? It may not take long for my country to witness a mountain of corpses. I can’t let that happen. Because of this thought, I never stopped going to the hospital. Instead, I have stopped going home for the past few days. Today, I am a corona patient. And today, the very society that I kept on serving, threatens my family. It sends the police to my home. It questions my parents for not forcing me to quit my job earlier. Wow! Society’s responsibility. Tomorrow, you or your loved ones might test positive for the coronavirus. Then where will you go for help? Where will you hide your family? Why this mental torture? Now, how will I tell my father that I will go back to work at the hospital?”
These are the words that staff nurse Ranjita Thapa posted on her Facebook wall to reveal how her neighbours and the community had started mistreating her family after she got diagnosed with COVID-19. Her story is quite similar to that of Dr. Bishwo Bandhu Bagale, head of Ratnanagar Hospital, who also took to Facebook a few days earlier to describe how his neighbours had begun shunning and dejecting him following a positive coronavirus test. They even labelled his house a “corona-infected home” and stuck a poster outside it. He used the Facebook to publicly request his community members to stop such demoralising activities.
“It shocks me to see even the community leaders behaving this way. I pray that those discriminating against me do not get infected. But, if they do, I shall be the first to give them plasma for treatment,” Bagale told reporters.
These two cases are examples of how our society treats those battling COVID-19. But why? And why doctors? News of health workers who work tirelessly to treat patients not getting the compassion they deserve in their time of need is worrying and heart-breaking.
Thapa, who works at the BP Koirala Memorial Cancer Hospital, pointed out that the society needed to help raise the morale of the patients. She said this while talking to a local FM station of Chitwan on Friday.
“It is not a person’s fault that they contract the contagious disease. Don’t add to their stress. If you can, try and boost their confidence to fight against the disease,” she requested.
Chitwan has recorded 303 cases of COVID-19 till Friday afternoon, of whom 34 are health workers. People have started becoming paranoid about health workers and security personnel and begun discriminating against them – even when they do not have the coronavirus.
“This is because of the lack of knowledge about the virus among the general public,” highlighted Dr. Bhojraj Adhikari, chairman of Bharatpur Hospital.
“Infected people will continue to be discriminated against until we are able to make people aware that corona patients need love, not hate,” Adhikari explained.

Some of those engaged in boycotting and discriminating against infected doctors are officials from local governments. He commented that this situation was a by-product of the restriction and taboo perception towards COVID-19 at the policy-making level.
“This is a disease like any other. We need to disseminate information that if we maintain social distance, wear masks and take precautions then we do not need to be afraid of this illness,” Dr. Adhikari said. “Policy makers should now be able to explain this to the public in a way that is not frightening.”
Assistant Chief District Officer of Chitwan Netra Prasad Sharma also agreed to the view that everyone should boost the morale of health professionals. He also emphasised that no one could discriminate against anybody based on any disease and noted legal action would be taken against such people. At the same time, he clarified that no health worker in Chitwan had approached the District Administration Office complaining of discrimination.
“Doctors are getting infected while treating us. Let’s show them love, not hatred,” Sharma said.