By Fiston Mahamba and Clement Bonnerot
BUNIA, Democratic Republic of Congo, July 9 (Reuters) – Ebola response workers in northeastern Democratic Republic of Congo staged protests outside three treatment centres on Thursday, saying they had not been paid all they were owed for their work.
The outbreak has infected 1,759 people and resulted in 600 confirmed deaths since it was declared almost two months ago, according to the latest government data released on Wednesday.
The World Health Organization said this week transmission of the rare form of Ebola was continuing; it kills 30% to 50% of those infected and has no vaccine or cure.
Dozens of members of Ebola response teams gathered on Thursday outside the Centre Medical Evangelique (CME), Elikya and Salama treatment centres in Bunia, the capital of Ituri Province, which is the hardest hit.
Police dispersed one of the protests, outside the CME.
It was not immediately clear whether the protests had disrupted operations at the treatment centres.
Speaking to journalists in Bunia, Health Minister Samuel Roger Kamba acknowledged there had been problems with “the human resources pillar of the response”, namely with ensuring that the lists of people who needed to be paid were updated and accurate.
An official at Africa’s top public health agency told an online press conference it was working with Congolese authorities to speed up payments to frontline health workers.
“This is very important to keep (up) the morale,” Africa CDC official Wessam Mankoula said. He said the Africa CDC had provided Congo with about $2 million to support its Ebola response, some of which could be used to make “delayed payments” to health workers.
A Congolese health official, who asked not to be named as he was not authorised to speak to the press, told Reuters that talks were under way with workers who were threatening to go on strike, but that so far no strike had begun.
WORKERS SAY PAY IS LATE, DOES NOT REFLECT WORKLOAD
In a letter dated July 5 and addressed to Ituri’s governor and health officials, Ebola response workers said they had not been paid for services rendered since the start of the latest Ebola outbreak, which was announced on May 15.
The letter said this had resulted in “significant socio-economic difficulties” and severely affected the workers’ living conditions.
The workers also complained that compensation rates were too low relative to the risks and workload involved in the Ebola response.
They demanded an increase in daily allowances and called for the removal of income tax deductions, arguing that allowances constituted bonuses rather than salaries.
(Reporting by Fiston Mahamba and Clement Bonnerot;Additional reporting by Sfundo Parakozov;Writing by Amindeh Blaise Atabong; Editing by Robbie Corey-Boulet and Philippa Fletcher)
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