Speaking to newsmen,Dokpesi said-''I still have doubts in my mind. I still want to be properly educated. What is the difference between COVID-19 which is a virus and Malaria which is caused by mosquitos because every medication we were given was malartia medication. Some people, before they were told they were COVID-19 positive, they were tested in reputable laboratories and hospitals in Abuja and what they found was that they had a lot of malaria parasites in their bloodstream. So when did malaria become synonymous to COVID-19?''
This question was then later put to Chikwe Iheakweazu, the Director-General of the National Center for Disease Control(NCDC) and this was his answer-
''I think we all know COVID-19 is a respiratory illness caused by a virus, Malaria is caused by a parasite. They are completely different diseases.
However, many diseases present exactly the same way in the beginning, Yellow fever presents the same way with fever at the beginning, Lassa the same way, malaria the same way.
So, the initial presentation of a febrille illness is similar across diseases. There is no specific treatment for COVID-19 so what clinicians do is to manage your symtoms so that your body recovers as quickly as possible.
You can have Malaria and COVID-19. That you have COVID-19 doesn't prevent you from having Malaria and if you are in a hospital for one month, you could definitely be co-infected by both of them.
So there are many reasons why people receive similar treatments but they are two completely different diseases with different pathogenesis.'' he said.
The AIT founder was discharged with two of his grandchildren, while the test results of other family members are still being expected.
Personally,i think Dokpesi should just be thankful that he came out of this alive.Many haven't been so lucky.And why would they say he was positive if he wasn't?I hope they are not trying to politicise this as well,because everything is Nigeria is politics or tribal.