23 / 32
Features
23
TUESDAY, APRIL 14, 2020
Christine Armario
BOGOTA (AP) - No one should have
known Bella Lamilla's name.
But within hours of her diagnosis
as Ecuador's irst coronavirus case,
it was circulating on social media
along with photos showing the
retired schoolteacher unconscious
and intubated in a hospital bed.
Her large, close-knit family
watched in horror as a dual tragedy
began to unfold: While Lamilla
fought for her life in intensive care,
strangers began tearing apart her
reputation online.
"Knowing she had it, the old
lady didn't care and went all
around," one person commented
on Facebook.
"It was ugly," said Pedro
Valenzuela, 22, Lamilla's great-
nephew. "It hurt a lot."
The spreading global pandemic
has tested the competing interests
of public health and privacy,
with thousands of individuals
experiencing both physical illness
and the less-visible stigma that
can come with it. While there are
many stories about good deeds
and people coming together,
the coronavirus is also bringing
out another, darker side of some
people: Fear, anger, resentment
and shaming.
In India, doctors have reported
being evicted by landlords
worried they'll spread coronavirus
to other tenants. In the town of
St Michel in Haiti, people stoned
an orphanage after a Belgian
volunteer was diagnosed.
In
Indonesia,
an
early
coronavirus patient was subjected
to cruel innuendo suggesting she
contracted it through sex work.
Psychologists say the desire to
identify and castigate those who
are ill harkens to an age-old instinct
to protect oneself and relatives
from catching a potentially fatal
disease - and a belief, however
unfounded, that those who get it
bear some responsibility.
"Illness isoneof the fundamental
fears humans have been dealing
with their entire evolution," said Jeff
Sherman, a psychology professor at
the University of California, Davis.
"It's not really surprising they would
be hostile toward someone they
believe is responsible for bringing
illness into their community."
Located along a sage-coloured
river about an hour from Ecuador's
Paciic coast, Babahoyo has a small-
town feel despite its population of
95,000. TheextendedLamilla family
is well-known there and prominent,
including doctors, engineers and
schoolteachers.
Bella Lamilla, one of six sisters,
lost her husband to leukaemia and
raised their four children on her
own. Three years ago she followed
a daughter to Spain to enjoy
retirement with three grandchildren
in a sleepy Madrid suburb.
At least once a year, she lewback
to Ecuador, where a lock of relatives
would greet her at the airport.
On February 14 she boarded a
12-hour Iberia light to Guayaquil.
She noticed people coughing
on the plane and tried to protect
herself somewhat by covering up
in a blanket.
Arriving in Ecuador, Lamilla
sailed through immigration with no
questions asked, even though she'd
started feeling feverish.
"I thought she was just unwell
and tired from the trip," said her
daughter, who asked not to be
identiied for fear of repercussion
from authorities.
The next day Lamilla's head
was pounding. About two dozen
relatives feted her at a welcome-
home barbecue, where she didn't
seem her usual energetic self.
She went to two different
local doctors, who dismissed
her ailments as side effects of
a urinary infection or a possible
muscular problem.
Whenshebeganhavingdificulty
breathing a week later, relatives
took her to a private hospital in the
nearby city of Guayaquil.
The Alcivar Hospital said it
alerted the Ministry of Public Health
about her case on February 22, two
days after Lamilla arrived, but got
no response.
Only the National Institute for
Public Health Investigation could
do the test, the clinic said, and
it wasn't until February 27 that
Hidden suffering of coronavirus
The COVID 19 pandemic is bringing out the dark side of some people.
authorities agreed to analyse a
specimen for coronavirus.
Finally a doctor pulled Lamilla's
children aside and delivered the
news: She was Ecuador's "patient
Relatives of Bella Lamilla, the irst person to be diagnosed with coronavirus in Ecuador, maintain quarantine in
their home in Babahoyo, Ecuador. PHOTOS: AP
zero". Relatives woke each other
up by phone. One, a doctor, told
everyone not to leave home -
they'd all potentially been exposed,
and some had already begun
experiencing symptoms.
The next day, the family
watched from their self-imposed
quarantine as then-Health Minister
Catalina Andramuño announced
Ecuador's irst case in a live news
conference.Almost immediately
the rumours and fury began
swirling on social media.
On Facebook and WhatsApp, a
medical document with Lamilla's
name began circulating. Photos
and videos showing the petite
woman with short blonde hair
being transported in a hospital bed
appeared online.
Later, a map with addresses of
the family's homes in Babahoyo
began making the rounds as well.
Facebook users dredged up old
photographsof the familyat a soccer
game to imply they'd exposed
thousands. "How irresponsible,"
one man remarked on pictures of
relatives celebrating Lamilla's recent
return, before her diagnosis.
"Everyone was on high alert,"
said PedroOrellana, the ex-husband
of one of Lamilla's sisters. "We didn't
know what people were capable of
doing in their desperation."
A few familymembers defended
Lamilla online, while others, too
distressed by the vitriol, avoided
social media entirely. They knew
Lamilla would have been mortiied
to discover she'd potentially
spread coronavirus to relatives. At
that point, she was already on a
ventilator and under sedation.
"I couldn't look at anything,"
Lamilla's daughter said. "I didn't
want to hurt my heart."
Patients
elsewhere
whose
identities became public have
endured similar attacks.
Minutes
after
Indonesia
announced its irst two cases, the
names of Sita Tyasutami and her
mother leaked online with their
phone numbers and home address.
Hundreds of WhatsApp messages
looded in.
This 2019 photo provided by
the Lamilla Family shows Bella
Lamilla, a retired school teacher
who was Ecuador’s irst con irmed
coronavirus case