I am MBANDA Vincent from Kigali city. I am 74 years old and have been living with asthma for 47 years.

During the covid-19 pandemic, the family and I faced significant uncertainties as a result of the need for asthmatic care. Considering the inception of covid-19, I felt uncomfortable wearing a facemask because it makes me breathless. Though, this was among the government directives to contain the spread of the deadly virus.

My age and living with asthma discouraged me during the covid-19 because I heard that older people and those with asthma are at high risk of becoming seriously ill with coronavirus, especially if they have severe asthma or their condition not kept under control.

When I don’t have a crisis, I don’t take medication. This episodic treatment helped me succeed in following my asthma prescriptions despite the lockdown. However, asthmatic inhalers and their synergizing drugs are costly as community health-based insurance doesn’t cover many. So, I used to get them on my own, which is tough for me as a retired person.

It would be more supportive of having respiratory disease specialists at our nearest health facilities to help us in an asthmatic crisis. It truly takes us a long time on the patients’ queue, which confronts severe emergency treatment. Any financial assistance would be an add-on to pay our prescriptions; therefore, adhere to our medications.