Nigerian public sector doctors on Thursday suspended a
nearly five-week long strike over an Ebola outbreak which has
killed two people and infected five others in Lagos.
A statement from the National Medical Association union listed
“the incursion of Ebola into Nigeria” as a main reason for
suspending the strike.
The emergence of Ebola in Lagos, sub-Saharan Africa’s largest
city with more than 20 million people, has created further panic
over the worst ever outbreak of the deadly tropical disease. The densely-packed city has a weak public health system which
experts say is poorly equipped to manage a significant number of
Ebola patients.
Lagos state health commissioner Jide Idris late Wednesday
appealed to striking doctors to resume work, saying: “We all
must come together to address this situation.”
The patient who brought the virus to Lagos on July 20, Liberian
finance ministry employee Patrick Sawyer, was placed under
quarantine at a private hospital.
But even the basic registration fee at a private facility can cost
roughly $200, a sum which only a tiny minority of Lagosians can
afford. If Lagos sees more Ebola cases, public hospitals will need to be
operational if Nigeria hopes to contain a spread of the virus,
officials say.
Since the start of the year, Ebola has killed nearly 1 000 people
and infected more than 1 700, mostly in Guinea, Liberia and
Sierra Leone. |
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