10/9/2014
MONROVIA – Bodies of Ebola victims in Sierra Leone were at risk Wednesday of being abandoned in the streets of the capital, Freetown, due to a strike by burial teams angry about not receiving their hazard pay.
The strike began after 200 new cases of the deadly infection were identified at the end of a 72-hour round-the-clock curfew declared by the Sierra Leone government to prevent the spread of the virus.
Mariama Bangura, a 40-year-old housewife and mother of four who obeyed the curfew, told Efe in a telephone conversation that the teams’ decision to strike is “unforgivable.”
Refusing to collect bodies will cause risks to other citizens, Bangura said. She expressed hope that the government of President Ernest Bai Koroma would act quickly to put an end to the situation.
Speaking over the radio Wednesday, Deputy Health Minister Madina Rahman said if the strike goes on, it will undermine all the progress that has been made so far in Sierra Leone’s fight against the Ebola outbreak.
Rahman said the dispute centered on a one-week backlog for hazardous duty pay that had been deposited in the bank, but was not given to the burial teams on time.
“The health ministry is going to investigate the delay in the health workers not receiving their money,” Rahman said.
As of Monday, 678 people have been killed by Ebola in Sierra Leone since the outbreak of the disease in March.
The disease has claimed more than 3,400 lives in West Africa.
source
MONROVIA – Bodies of Ebola victims in Sierra Leone were at risk Wednesday of being abandoned in the streets of the capital, Freetown, due to a strike by burial teams angry about not receiving their hazard pay.
The strike began after 200 new cases of the deadly infection were identified at the end of a 72-hour round-the-clock curfew declared by the Sierra Leone government to prevent the spread of the virus.
Mariama Bangura, a 40-year-old housewife and mother of four who obeyed the curfew, told Efe in a telephone conversation that the teams’ decision to strike is “unforgivable.”
Refusing to collect bodies will cause risks to other citizens, Bangura said. She expressed hope that the government of President Ernest Bai Koroma would act quickly to put an end to the situation.
Speaking over the radio Wednesday, Deputy Health Minister Madina Rahman said if the strike goes on, it will undermine all the progress that has been made so far in Sierra Leone’s fight against the Ebola outbreak.
Rahman said the dispute centered on a one-week backlog for hazardous duty pay that had been deposited in the bank, but was not given to the burial teams on time.
“The health ministry is going to investigate the delay in the health workers not receiving their money,” Rahman said.
As of Monday, 678 people have been killed by Ebola in Sierra Leone since the outbreak of the disease in March.
The disease has claimed more than 3,400 lives in West Africa.
source
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