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Kenya's COVID-19 curve has been flattening in recent weeks. /CFM-FILE.

Capital Health

Stigma posing major challenge to fight against COVID-19 in Kenya: study

NAIROBI, Kenya, Jul 2- A survey by TIFA Research Firm now shows that stigmatisation is still a challenge in the fight against coronavirus in the country.

The survey revealed that 23 percent of Kenyans are not willing and cannot visit people who have recovered from the virus.

It also indicates that 41 percent of parents do not allow their children to play with children of those who have recovered.

“A significant proportion [of people] fear the stigmatization from family and neighbors should they be found to have COVID-19,” the report concludes from a sample size of 843 people interviewed between June 2 and 15. 

By Wednesday, 2,089 people had been discharged from hospital after recovering from the virus.  

The report further showed that another 23 percent of Kenyans fear taking coronavirus test due to discomfort during the process of testing.  

14 percent fear mandatory quarantine while 9 percent are afraid of stigmatization.  

“In spite their intentions to go for voluntary testing, some fear that the test may be painful, mandatory quarantine and stigma from neighbours,” the survey revealed.

Kenya had registered 6,673 positive cases for coronavirus by June 1, after testing 173,365 samples since mid March.

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