‘I didn’t want to take it to my continent’ — Africa’s first coronavirus patient recounts recovery

Kem Daryl, Africa’s first coronavirus patient, has narrated how he decided to remain in China to avoid bringing the disease into the continent.

The 21-year-old Cameroonian student, whose country shares a border with Nigeria, was living in the Chinese city of Jingzhou when the deadly virus broke out in Wuhan, spreading to other provinces.

According to BBC, Daryl was placed under a 14-day quarantine, having suffered fever, a dry cough, and flu-like symptoms.

Unlike many, Daryl began to show signs of recovery after two weeks in isolation at a local Chinese hospital as he was treated with some antibiotics typically used for HIV patients.

“No matter what happens, I don’t want to take the sickness back to Africa. When I was going to the hospital, I was thinking about my death and how I thought it was going to happen,” he said from his varsity dormitory, where he was being quarantined.

The computerized tomography (CT) scan carried out on him had thereafter showed no sign of the illness, making him the first African person who, despite known to have been infected with the deadly disease, recovered in no time.

Daryl said he had no intention of leaving China, irrespective of the available options, as even his medical bills were being taken care of by the Chinese government.

“I don’t want to go home before finishing studying. I think there is no need to return home because all hospital fees were taken care of by the Chinese government,” he said.

Lai Mohammed, Nigeria’s minister for information, had said that citizens in Wuhan, a Chinese city where the virus is known to have broken out, were unwilling to return home.

Africa recorded its first case of coronavirus last Friday after a foreigner who had been put in isolation at a hospital in Egypt tested positive for the disease.

Medical experts also warned that countries in the continent with weak health systems may struggle to cope with a potential outbreak.

While coronavirus has killed over 1,770 and infected more than 72,000 people, two recently suspected cases in Nigeria had tested negative after medical investigations were carried out.

Meanwhile, here’s all you need to know about the symptoms, treatment, prevention of the mysterious coronavirus.