Ebola Burial Teams Back To Work In Sierra Leone One Day After Strike

Ebola burial teams in Sierra Leone are back at work one day after organizing a strike over. Before the strike the teams had abandoned the dead bodies of Ebola victims in the capital.

Workers were in an uproar after a nursing assistant was alleged to have touched her own face with a protective glove, causing her to become infected with the deadly diesease. West African health workers have become increasingly worried about the conditions in which they work to slow the spread of Ebola. In Liberia health workers have promised to strike if they are not paid higher wages and provided with better safety equipment.

Earlier in the week the Sierra Leone Broadcasting Corporation reported that the bodies of Ebola victims were being left in homes and on the streets because of the burial team strikes. The dead bodies of Ebola victims are highly contagious.

On Wednesday morning, Sierra Leone’s deputy health minister Madina Rahman said the strike had been “resolved.” A short time after his message was delivered the dead bodies of Ebola victims were once again being loaded into vehicles.

In his radio interview Rahman said, “Health workers collect samples from a body suspected to have died from the Ebola virus.” Workers were demanding hazard pay because of their jobs requirements and the dangers of the Ebola virus.

Currently Ebola burial teams consist of 12 teams that are divided among 600 workers.

In Liberia workers are demanding $700 salaries. If the local government does not meet their demands they will leave their posts over the upcoming weekend.

The Ebola virus has claimed the lives of 3,400 people in 2014, with a majority of those deaths located in Sierra Leone, Liberia, and Guinea.