Ebola

PSI is concerned with the health of all workers, the special risks faced by health workers and the commitment of public service workers to provide quality health services to the populations they serve. Health is a public good, and ill-health is a fundamental humanitarian problem with political, economic and social causes and consequences. Good health is not only a social benefit to individuals and societies, but also contributes to economies because it plays an important role in productivity.

From the moment the Ebola Virus Disease emerged in Guinea and made its way through Sierra Leone and Liberia, with short but adequately repressed upheavals in Senegal and Nigeria, it affected 28,616 people and caused 11,310 deaths. [This article is an extract from the 2016 update"PSI trade union response to the Ebola Virus Disease".]

At the start of the Ebola crisis, PSI was contacted by its affiliates from the three most affected countries with the alarming news that health workers were dying on the work floor. [This article is an extract from the 2016 update "PSI trade union response to the Ebola Virus Disease".]

The kick-off of our activities was a large consultation meeting in Ghana with the health unions from the three most affected countries Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone. After an exercise on union challenges, opportunities and priorities, the unions started working on the analysis of their own national situation and the elaboration of a national action plan for their union.[This article is an extract from the 2016 update "PSI trade union response to the Ebola Virus Disease".]

In the first stage of the strategy, the health unions focused on collecting information in order to elaborate their union demands on proven data. A survey was carried out to collect data on payment of wages and hazard fees to healthcare workers and the financial support for the families of deceased healthcare workers. [This article is an extract from the 2016 Update "PSI trade union response to the Ebola Virus Disease".]

The highlights of 2015 included lobbying in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea, but also a wide range of activities at the United Nations and the United States, at the heart of international policy-making. [This article is an extract from the 2016 Update "PSI trade union response to the Ebola Virus Disease".]

Liberia has three health workers per 10,000 people and was the third and worst hit by the Ebola crisis of the three nations of the Mano River basin with more than 4,800 dead and 10,672 becoming infected. [ [This article is an extract from the 2016 Update "PSI trade union response to the Ebola Virus Disease".]

The Congolese population has no access to a qualitative health system as, especially in the provinces, the health structures are in an advanced state of decay. Health service providers are neither adequately nor continuously trained to strengthen their capacities and enhance their knowledge about the disease. [This article is an extract from the 2016 Update "PSI trade union response to the Ebola Virus Disease".]

In Ghana, 151 cases were tested on Ebola, but luckily none were confirmed. [This article is an extract from the 2016 Newsletter "PSI trade union response to the Ebola Virus Disease".]