Hello our lovely Ni Nyampinga! You have been listening to the news about coronavirus. May be you are asking yourself many questions about it. In order to understand, we talked to Kamali Fulgence, acting director of health promotion unit in Rwanda Biomedical Center (RBC). We talked more on this disease, which is now in Rwanda. While reading you will understand it and how you can protect yourself.

Ni Nyampinga: What is Coronavirus in details?

Kamali: Coronavirus is known as COVID-19. It is COVID-19 in intellectual or scientific term, it was given this name due to the year it was identified in order to differentiate it from other viruses.

This disease is caused by a virus called Corona. You become infected through respiratory droplets, sneezing, coughing or shaking hands with an infected person.

Ni Nyampinga: What are the symptoms of this disease?

Kamali: Most common symptoms are fever, tiredness, coughing, sore throat, runny nose, difficulty breathing and pneumonia.

Ni Nyampinga: is it fatal?

Kamali: This disease can kill any one. If you show symptoms and do not go for immediate treatment, you may die.

Ni Nyampinga: What can a person do in case he/she finds out he/she has the symptoms?

Kamali: In case you realize that you have COVID-19 symptoms, you have to isolate yourself in order to avoid infecting others. Avoid coughing or sneezing in public so that you do not infect others. Call immediately free line 114 to send you the ambulance and take you to the hospital.

Ni Nyampinga: How can a person protect himself/herself from the infection?

Kamali: Wash your hands with soap and clean water, cover your mouth and nose in case you want to sneeze or cough, avoid shaking hands, avoid going to crowded places, clean where you live or work and isolate yourself in case you feel like you have symptoms.

Ni Nyampinga: When is it necessary for a person to wear face mask?

Kamali: The face mask is used by people that are in the following categories.

A person with signs of respiratory tract diseases, coughing or has difficulty breathing, when you are with an infected person, when you work at the hospital, when you receive people who have respiratory tract diseases. If you are not in those categories said above you do not need to wear a mask.

Ni Nyampinga: As we conclude, can you tell us if this COVID-19 disease is curable?

Kamali: Even though there is no vaccine for it yet, you recover from the disease when you start early treatment. They treat symptom by symptom we talked above, with the body immune system you recover.