Photo By Andres Kudacki/AP
Photo By Andres Kudacki/AP
Photo By Andres Kudacki/AP
Photo By Andres Kudacki/AP
FREETOWN, Sierra Leone (AP) - Burial teams in Sierra Leone abandoned the dead bodies of Ebola victims in the capital after going on strike this week, though an official claimed Wednesday the situation had been 'resolved.'
The Sierra Leone Broadcasting Corporation reported that bodies of Ebola victims were being left in homes and on the streets of Freetown because of the strike by burial teams, who complained they had not been paid. The dead bodies of Ebola victims are highly contagious.
Speaking on a radio breakfast program Wednesday, deputy health minister Madina Rahman said the strike had been 'resolved,' though organizers could not immediately be reached to confirm it was over.
Rahman said the dispute centered on a one-week backlog for hazard pay that had been deposited in the bank but was not given to burial teams on time.
'The health ministry is going to investigate the delay in the health workers not receiving their money,' Rahman said.
The burial teams make up a total of 600 workers organized in groups of 12, health ministry spokesman Sidie Yahya Tunis said.
Tunis described the situation as 'very embarrassing.' The government was already facing criticism this week over a shipping container filled with medical gear and mattresses that has been held up at the port for more than a month.
The World Health Organization says Ebola is believed to have killed more than 600 people in Sierra Leone, where there have been more than 2,100 confirmed cases. More than 3,400 people have been killed by the outbreak in West Africa, which has hit Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia hardest.
In Spain, officials said a nurse and a nursing assistant have been placed under observation for Ebola in a Madrid hospital where a colleague became infected after working with two Spanish missionary priests who contracted the disease in West Africa and later died at the center. It was not known whether the two also treated the two priests or the infected colleague.
The infected nursing assistant is the first person known to catch the disease outside the outbreak zone in West Africa during the current epidemic. She was said to be in stable condition Wednesday.
The woman's husband is also under observation in the Carlos III hospital while two others, a nurse and a Spanish engineer who had traveled to Nigeria, were given the all -clear after testing negative for the virus.
Spanish authorities are investigating how the nursing assistant became infected. They are also monitoring some 50 people who came into contact with her or also tended the two priests that died.
Health authorities in Madrid have faced accusations of not following protocol and poorly preparing health care workers for dealing with Ebola.
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Associated Press writer Ciaran Giles in Madrid contributed reporting.
Posted by Unknown on Wednesday, October 8, 2014 - Rating: 4.5
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