After losing 10 colleagues to Ebola , Sierra Leone doctors go on strike

FREETOWN, Sierra Leone -- Junior doctors in
Sierra Leone went on strike Monday to
demand better treatment for health workers
who become infected with Ebola, a health
official said.
The association representing junior doctors
asked the government to make sure life-
saving equipment, like dialysis machines, is
available to treat infected doctors. The
government has promised that a special
treatment unit for health care workers will
open soon and will be fully equipped. But the
doctors began their strike anyway, according
to Health Ministry spokesman Jonathan Abass
Kamara.
Ten of the 11 Sierra Leonean doctors who
have become infected have died. Ebola has
killed about 6,200 people, including hundreds
of health workers. Throughout the outbreak
in West Africa, health care workers have
periodically gone on strike to demand better
protection or higher pay.
In an effort to make sure health workers get
top-notch treatment, special centers dedicated
to their treatment have already opened in
Liberia and Sierra Leone.

As infection rates in Liberia and Guinea begin
to stabilize, Sierra Leoneans and their
government have been asking why the disease
is picking up pace there and some have lashed
out at the British response. In particular, the
British charity Save the Children, which is
running the first U.K.-built treatment center
to open, has been criticized for a slow and
disorganized rollout.
The charity defended its actions on Monday,
saying that it stepped into a role at the Kerry
Town center that no one else wanted and that
it has said all along that it does not have
experience running an Ebola ward. It said it is
slowly opening more beds, as is considered
the best practice. A month after the center
opened, 40 of 80 planned beds are
operational.
The side of the Kerry Town clinic that is for
health workers has also been controversial
after rumors that it would only accept foreign
health workers or only ones working at
British-built centers. The clinic is open to any
infected frontline health worker, said Andrew
Ewoku, a media manager for the charity in
Sierra Leone.