Ebola: Doctors suspend strike

Doctors in public hospitals on Thursday suspended a nearly five-week long strike over an Ebola outbreak which has killed two people and infected five others in Lagos.

A statement issued by the Nigerian Medical Association cited “the incursion of Ebola into Nigeria” as a main reason for suspending the strike.

AFP reports that 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.

The state Commissioner  of Health, 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.

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.