I am yet to receive my COVID-19 test results – MP Kahunde

Kampala, Uganda |  THE INDEPENDENT |  The Woman MP for Kiryandongo Helen Kahunde has said she is yet to receive her COVID-19 test results after she tested for COVID-19 on Tuesday.

Following unconfirmed reports in the corridors of Parliament that a female MP had tested positive for COVID-19, many online news sites and social media pages were quick to name Kahunde as the positive case.  

Parliament also announced that effective July 16th, all MPs and staff of Parliament will start under going tests for COVID-19.

However, Uganda Radio Network (URN) contacted Kahunde who said indeed she tested for COVID-19 but was yet to see her results and also stated that she did not have any signs and symptoms of COVID-19.

She says that her temperature is  normal, and she has no headache and that generally she was doing well, except for the overwhelming phone calls she is getting due to the posts about her being positive of COVID-19.

URN has since learnt that a section of Members of Parliament from the National Resistance Movement (NRM) side were meeting the President on Tuesday, and as a result they were all subjected to a COVID-19 test.

Kahunde says she tested yesterday and on Wednesday she was again called and informed that her results were inconsistent and she needed to test again.

She says that as she was headed to Mulago later on Wednesday for her second test, she was overwhelmed with social media messages and calls, and she ended up questioning what was happening.

Kahunde says she had to call Dr. Henry Kyobe who is the one in charge of the results and he also had no idea on the news doing round on social media and online news sites.

“I called him and I was wondering how everyone now knows my result and yet personally I have not got my results. At least they would first give me my results saying based on the tests of the results, this is what we have got, but I don’t even have it in my hand, and they told me the results are not out,” said Kahunde.

“What they told me, is that my result was inconsistent and so I needed to to another test, but now many people are saying I am in Mulago,” she added.  Kahunde reasoned that many people could have taken the fact that she had to retest and called it being positive.

She however says the even if she emerges positive or not, the issue of being positive or not is supposed to be confidential and she doesn’t know how the media ended up getting the results. She says she is however not worried if she is positive saying all will be well.

“Coronavirus is not like HIV/Aids, were people will think badly about you, but it is a virus anyone can get, so even if I were to turn out positive, I am still young and people are recovering. So I am not worried at all, let people think what they want to think,” She said.

Kahunde also told URN that she believes this could be a politically motivated stance against her, as it is not the first time she is being labelled as positive with COVID-19.  She says that in March many wrote about her that she had tested positive alongside her husband and that it was now the second time this was happening.

Parliament on Tuesday wrote a press release saying to the best of their knowledge, no MP is positive. They also reiterated that if someone is positive, it is up to them to reveal their status since it is a private issue and also ethical.

By Press time, URN could not establish from health officials in regards to the inconsistent results Kahunde referred to. However in several cases results from samples have been deemed inconsistent for instance in the case of the 8 month old Iganga Baby who was at some point neither positive nor negative.

Recently President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni said that some results were falsely declared positive because of a mix up in the lab and yet the people were actually negative. It is not yet clear what the Kahunde’s case could be exactly.

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URN