Jerotich Seii (pictured) was baffled when she still tested positive for Covid-19 after nearly a month in isolation and spending Sh15,000 on doctors’ prescriptions.
Her case is one among many that point to the challenges that Covid-19 continues to pose to doctors and patients alike, as more truths about the nature of the virus continue to emerge.
When one should be discharged from isolation and whether they are safe afterwards is still a matter of debate.
This, even after the Ministry of Health released guidelines indicating that once patients test positive for Covid-19, they should be put in isolation for at least 10 days.
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The ministry directed medics to discharge Covid-19 patients if they showed no fever and other symptoms, without further tests.
However, some patients still test positive after 14 days or more.
According to the US Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) a test-based strategy to discharge patients is no longer required.
“In the majority of cases, it results in prolonged isolation of patients who continue to shed detectable SARS-CoV-2 RNA but are no longer infectious,” states CDC.
Scientists, believe that in cases where a patient still tests positive weeks after they have fully recovered, the tests react to dead viral fragments still being cleared by the body, and not to live, infectious virus.
When Covid-19 first broke out in China, all patients who tested positive were immediately isolated for 14 days, and would be released only after two negative tests.
According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), this recommendation was based on the then knowledge and experience the health body had with similar coronaviruses.
In its brief, WHO highlighted the risk of individuals with prolonged detection of the virus being subjected to longer periods of isolation “affecting individual well-being, society, and access to healthcare.”
Further, having a positive result after a previous negative result, the WHO noted, would unnecessarily challenge trust in the laboratory system.
The CDC recommends that persons who do not show Covid-19 symptoms or show mild illness and whose immunity has not been severely weakened can be discharged after 10 days since first testing positive.
Those with severe illness can be discharged after between 10 and 20 days.
It is, however, not clear how these recommendations are being implemented in Kenya.
According to Matilu Mwau, a research director at the Kenya Medical Research Institute, discharging patients after 10 days does not mean that they and those around them are safe from Covid-19.
According to Prof Mwau, continued wearing of masks and following other WHO guidelines is the only way of protecting oneself and others from Covid-19.
