Ebola: Health workers in Congo strike over unpaid salaries
After the response to the last outbreak of Ebola in DR Congo, the health workers throughout the country are striking because of the salaries unpaid.
Ebola health workers strike. The World Health Organization (WHO) allegedly say that without health workers, the patients are without medical assistance and they risk complications. The Ebola epidemic in Congo has spread into remote villages since 1 June 2020.
Health workers strike: what is happening in Congo after the Ebola epidemic?
A part of the strike provoked the blocked access to the Ebola testing laboratories. According to the WHO Ebola incident manager, Mory Keita. Laboratory technicians, case management teams and contract tracers kept on blocking the visits and the tests.
They were protesting the health ministry’s recent publication of their pay scales. According to the health workers, they are too low for the risk they took treating Ebola patients. Mory Keita continues saying that the government also stopped to pay them since the epidemic began.
As the health workers strikes are going on, there are some samples collected two days ago which have to be still tested. This means that they are not effective in terms of efficiency to the response.
Ebola health workers strike, What about the Ministry of Health?
Health workers ask for a comment from the Health Minister of Congo, but by now no comment has been released.
Ebola is responsible for more than 2,000 people’s death in Congo and in June 2020, the epidemic seemed to be ended, at least in the registered and treated villages. Congo’s healthcare system has been crippled for many years and underfunded because of the government’s choices. Now, health workers claim for what they worked for, risking their own lives.