GBARNGA (Liberia), October 8 (RIA Novosti), Mark Hirst - The Liberian Government's refusal to pay nurses who went on strike for a month risks "fueling discontentment" that could undermine efforts to tackle the Ebola outbreak, a former Senator for Bong County in Liberia, Franklin Siakor told RIA Novosti on Wednesday.
"I talked to the head of the nurses not to let herself become the reason the International Medical Corps (IMC) closes the treatment center," Siakor said. "She agreed to stay away as the IMC had demanded, but the government refusing to pay the nurses is fuelling discontentment."
Siakor explained, that the Liberian Government is refusing to pay the nurses for the month they stayed at home when there were no gloves in the hospitals. "Nurses might go on strike again for their pay in Bong County," he warned.
The former Senator added that some people who had tested positive for Ebola were continuing to go untreated as some of the Ebola Treatment Units (ETUs) had reached capacity.
"When some people tested positive in Balakertehla, they were not informed. People were not taken out of the town because the ETUs were full," Siakor added.
"Trust in the health sector is still being undermined and will take a long time to rebuild before people can relax," Siakor told RIA Novosti.
Meanwhile the Scottish Government announced Wednesday that it had allocated $800,000 (£500,000) to the World Health Organization (WHO) to help tackle the disease in Africa.
"We have also provided £500,000 to the World Health Organization to help combat spread of the disease in Africa," Scottish Health Minister Alex Neil said in a statement. "Scotland has a robust health protection surveillance system which monitors global disease outbreaks and ensures that we are fully prepared to respond to such situations," he added.
More than 3,400 people have died during the Ebola outbreak, most of them in the West African states of Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea.
Ebola symptoms include high fever, bleeding and central nervous system damage.
In previous outbreaks 90 percent of patients testing positive with the disease have subsequently died. The fatality rate in this current outbreak is around 70 percent. There is currently no vaccine or known cure for Ebola.
