International health experts say that health care workers, including doctors and nurses, that are now in the frontline to fight the world's worst known Ebola virus outbreak in West Africa must be entitled to receive higher payments, more insurance coverage, better incentives, and access to the Ebola drug, ZMapp.
Since the onset of the outbreak in March of this year, more than 120 health workers have died in their effort to care for the afflicted. Johan von Schreeb, department head for the research study on Healthcare in Disasters from the Karolinska institute in Stockholm said that, "there has to be reciprocity for those that are taking a risk in getting involved in this epidemic and are working to control it. If you take risks, you should be paid... There needs to be some sort of insurance scheme too, so if you die, your family are supported so that they can survive despite the loss of income."
Schreeb had recently traveled to the affected countries in West Africa to advise government and health officials in the region about managing the deadly epidemic. He stressed the importance of protecting and remunerating health workers who are the ones doing the dangerous works. Otherwise, he said, they may not be expected to perform their duties. Schreeb also suggested the use of modern mobile technology to track those who are reporting for work from the field. He also encouraged officials to look into transferring money directly to the workers as a form of additional payment based on their performance, which could be added on top of their regular salaries.
Recently, the Sierra Leone Government has come under fire because of the way that they have been handling the Ebola outbreak. Health workers in one of the major Ebola treatment centers in the country went on strike, protesting their poor working conditions and substandard pay. In other parts of the country, some health workers staged formal walkouts, while others simply did not report for work.