BEVERLY HILLS, August 07, (THEWILL) – Nigeria’s National Medical Association (NMA) has directed doctors working in state run hospitals and health centres in Nigeria to suspend a nearly 5-week long strike over an Ebola outbreak which has killed two people and infected five others in Lagos, according to an AFP report quoting a statement from the union.
However, the directive to suspend the strike which was made by union President, Dr. Kayode Obembe may not be effective as THEWILL has gathered that state chapters of the union at a delegates meeting on Thursday morning voted to continue the strike.
Usually, delegates to NMA meetings comprise representatives of the 36 state branches of the union including the FCT, past presidents and the immediate past secretary general of the union.
A senior source in the union told THEWILL that the order to cancel the strike was unilaterally issued by the president of the union.
The union’s president and its members have failed to agree to call off the 5-week long strike that has crippled state run hospitals and clinics.
The statement approved by the NMA President listed “the incursion of Ebola into Nigeria” as a main reason for suspending the strike, according to the AFP report.
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.
Nigeria’s Minister for Health, Onyeabuchi Chukwu Wednesday said he had requested experimental drugs for Ebola from the United States Centre for Disease Control and Prevention.
