When James, 34, started looking for a house near his new workplace in Malawi’s capital, Lilongwe, he was not expecting any hurdles. As a new medical doctor with a job at a public hospital he would normally be an ideal tenant for any landlord. When he called about an apartment, the landlady confirmed it was vacant but when he said he was a doctor, she seemed to cool. When he arrived the next day to view the apartment, she said somebody else was taking it. “That was when I realised that I had made a blunder … by announcing my profession. Her response just confirmed the fears that doctors like me looking to rent have – that they will be refused out of fear of the virus,” said James, who asked to use only his first name. Health workers, once held in high regard in Malawi, are being stigmatised because of of the coronavirus pandemic. “I felt bad that I was treated that way,” said James. “Why didn’t she tell me in the first place that someone has booked the house? I was stigmatised. It has really affected me and I am still travelling from our home in Salima – more than an hour’s journey – for work.” Steven Manyamba, a 30-year-old nurse, said he had noticed a change in the attitude of minibus drivers and other passengers on his way to work. “I usually board the same vehicles on my way to or from work and most of the people know that I work at the hospital. I was then surprised when some of them started saying I will infect them with coronavirus. I felt really stigmatised,” he said. “While in my church, it was announced that the congregation should avoid what were called risk areas, groups and people. Some members of the congregation turned and looked at me. I felt very down.” Currently, Malawi has just 57 coronavirus cases. The first were detected in people who had travelled from other countries including India and China, and more recent cases are believed to have been transmitted locally. The president banned foreign nationals from some countries from entering Malawi and ordered returning Malawians to self quarantine. But borders remain open. Doctors and nurses have begun protesting about conditions, including the lack of personal protective equipment (PPE) and low wages. But both public and health officials have raised the alarm over the stigma and threats doctors and nurses have faced during the pandemic. The president of the national doctors’ union, Collins Mitambo, has asked the government to lay on special buses for the health workers. The mayor of Lilongwe, Juliana Kaduya, has condemned landlords for evicting health workers, saying “discrimination will not help matters in the fight against the virus”. One matron at Queen Elizabeth Central hospital, said she had received many complaints from staff over mistreatment from the public. Chimwemwe Ziyaya, of the National Organisation of Nurses and Midwives of Malawi, said she had heard of one case in Lilongwe where a mob had gathered outside the home of a nurse in self-isolation. “Some individuals around her house started to convene to attack her until the management moved her to accommodation at the hospital where she works.” Ziyaya said some nurses are hiding their uniforms until they reach work because “when they put on uniforms other passengers are reluctant to board buses with them”. “Some nurses have been nicknamed ‘coronavirus’. This has affected them psychologically and made it hard to be productive and put maximum concentration into their work,” Ziyaya said, adding that public education was desperately needed. A government spokesperson said such grievances were being addressed.