Jide Idris, Lagos State Commissioner
for Health
Members
of staff of the Infectious Disease Hospital, Yaba, Lagos, have
expressed anger over the impending removal of the hazard allowance
component of their September salary. Sources within the hospital told
our correspondent that the Lagos State government has excised the
allowance, which has been paid for years in the September payroll.
“We
have sighted the payroll for September already and there is no
provision for this allowance which has been paid to us for more than
four years. This is really terrible. If government wants to remove
anybody’s allowance, should it be from us workers at the IDH? What kind
of problem is this?” one of the workers of the hospital lamented.
Earlier, volunteers at the isolation ward had protested the non-payment of their daily allowance since August 30.
“We
learnt they want to send us away because there are no cases of Ebola
again. But they should at least pay us our entitlements even if they
will do that,” a volunteer confided in our correspondent on Thursday.
While
the Lagos State Government has not disclosed the cost it has incurred
in containing the Ebola Virus Disease so far, it has received cash
donations from some sources, including the Federal Government.
Governor
Babatunde Fashola recently confirmed the receipt of a N200m assistance
from the Federal Government, while officials of Seplat company also
donated N20m to the state to help contain the virus, among other
material and financial donations.
In
the wake of the outbreak, which occurred during the nationwide strike of
the Nigerian Medical Association, the state government had called for
volunteers. It paid daily allowance of N30, 000, N40, 000 and N50, 000
respectively to attendants, nurses and doctors working at the isolation
unit but the payment of the allowances had been stopped since August 29.
While
the volunteers still report to the isolation centres daily, many of
them said they were aware that the government would soon ask them to go
away “because there are no more cases of Ebola in the state.”
As
of Thursday, only the female student of the Obafemi Awolowo University,
who was brought to the centre late on Tuesday, remained in the Lagos
Ebola isolation ward. The student was said to have confessed that she
had contact with the late Port Harcourt doctor, Iyke Enemuo, who died of
the EVD after treating an ECOWAS diplomat in a hotel.
The
student, who was rushed to the centre from Ile Ife after she fell ill
and manifested symptoms similar to EVD, however, has tested negative to
the Ebola virus, the OAU authorities said on Thursday.
The
Lagos State Commissioner for Health, Dr. Jide Idris, did not answer his
call when our correspondent called for his confirmation of situation at
the IDH.
Meanwhile, in a paper
released Wednesday afternoon titled “Ebola Then and Now”, two doctors on
the frontlines of the 1976 outbreak in Zaire recall the meticulous
procedures that kept the climax of the outbreak to 318 people. While the
piece offers valuable information for those fighting the current Ebola
outbreak, it underscores just how dangerous it has become. That was
then, this is now. Here, juxtaposed with the New England Journal of
Medicine’s report, is today’s response.
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