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Sierra Leone: strike leaves Ebola dead in streets

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AP Freetown
The Sierra Leone Broadcasting Corporation reported today that bodies of Ebola victims have been left in the country's streets because of a strike by burial teams, who complain they have not been paid.

Health Ministry spokesman Sidie Yahya Tunis said the situation is "very embarrassing," insisting money was available to pay the teams. He promised to provide more information later today.

The World Health Organization says Ebola is believed to have killed more than 600 people in Sierra Leone, where there have been more than 2,100 confirmed cases.

In Spain, officials said a nurse and a nursing assistant have been placed under observation for Ebola in a Madrid hospital where a colleague became infected after working with two Spanish missionary priests who contracted the disease in West Africa and later died at the center.
 

It was not known whether the two also treated the two priests or the infected colleague.

The infected nursing assistant is the first person known to catch the disease outside the outbreak zone in West Africa during the current epidemic. She was said to be in stable condition today.

The woman's husband is also under observation in the Carlos III hospital while two others, a nurse and a Spanish engineer who had traveled to Nigeria, were given the all -clear after testing negative for the virus.

Spanish authorities are investigating how the nursing assistant became infected. They are also monitoring some 50 people who came into contact with her or also tended the two priests that died.

Health authorities in Madrid have faced accusations of not following protocol and poorly preparing health care workers for dealing with Ebola.

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First Published: Oct 08 2014 | 6:01 PM IST

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