Ebola Burial Teams Continue to Labor Under Extreme Conditions.

It has been two months since we first published an article on this blog about the brave people who are charged with burying those who have died from the Ebola virus in Africa. These workers are particularly vulnerable to the disease since it is spread through contact with bodily fluids. If that weren’t enough, at least one burial team has been attacked by local residents while trying to bury victims.

Meet the World’s Bravest Undertakers

Since that article, a great deal has happened. The first person to be diagnosed with the disease in the US was identified and has now died, cases have been diagnosed in Spain, and the death toll in Africa continues to mount.

On October 3rd the CDC released updated death toll numbers for the countries with widespread transmission. The picture these statistics paint is not a pretty one. Total cases reported have now reached 7,492 with the death count at 3,431. The hardest hit is Liberia with more than 2,000 confirmed deaths.

View the full CDC Report

Not surprisingly, many of those on the burial teams have reached a breaking point. On Tuesday, bodies quickly began to pile up in Sierra Leone as burial personnel went on strike over pay.

Members of the teams receive $100 a week for working under extremely dangerous conditions but say they haven’t been paid in weeks. The Ebola burial teams are comprised of 600 workers in groups of 12 per team.

Dead bodies were being left in homes and on the streets of the capital Freetown on Wednesday, the Sierra Leone Broadcasting Corporation reported.

“We have worked for two weeks now without pay. We have the most risky job, burying Ebola dead bodies all the time,” said Abass Turay, a member of the burial team in the Waterloo district of Freetown. “It’s unacceptable.”

Read the full story:  In Sierra Leone, strike leaves Ebola dead in streets

It is impossible for us to understand how daunting the job of disposing of the hundreds of victims who succumb to the disease every day must be. As workers manage this seemingly never-ending task, they are certainly aware of the risk they have of contracting the disease and at the same time, must carry the weight of concern for their families and friends.

The Sierra Leone strike ended just 24 hours after it began. But now, workers in Liberia are threatening to take similar action if pay and safety equipment demands are not met by the end of the week.

In Liberia, health workers are demanding monthly salaries of $700 as well as personal protective equipment, said George Williams, secretary-general of the National Health Workers Association.

“We give the government up to the weekend to address all these or else we will stop work,” Williams said.

The average health worker salary is currently below $500 even for the most highly trained staff. Finance Minister Amara Konneh has defended the compensation for health workers, saying last week that it was more than Sierra Leone and Guinea were offering.

Read the full story: Sierra Leone: Ebola Burial Teams Go Back to Work

As citizens of the world and members of the funeral industry, we can only hope that the men and women taking care of those lost to this horrible disease get the tools they need to safely handle the bodies of their friends, neighbors, and countrymen. We also hope that the next time we post an article on this subject, it is to report good news about the containment of Ebola. In the meantime, we say thank you to those who have accepted responsibility for such a difficult and dangerous job.

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Information on the Ebola virus

World Health Organization Ebola fact sheet

CDC Ebola Resources

International SOS Ebola Information