Mbabane - Swazi health workers protesting against the erection of a new centre dedicated to Ebola cases have blocked bulldozers and confronted construction workers in a bid to halt the project.
The Ministry of Health chose the National Tuberculosis Hospital, also known as the TB Control Centre, as the location for the Ebola centre. No Ebola cases have been reported in Swaziland.
“We were not consulted about turning our workplace into an Ebola hospital. The TB Centre is not containing TB in Swaziland, and some nurses have contracted the TB disease from patients,” said a nurse who asked not to be named because the government may deem participation in the protest illegal.
“Safety standards are very lax, and you can imagine what will happen to us when a deadly disease like Ebola arrives,” the nurse said.
The nurse and hospital staff have engaged in several strikes and slowdowns to protest at alleged safety lapses that caused some nurses to contract TB since the facility opened in 2011.
Swaziland has the world’s highest TB infection rate in addition to its world-leading Aids prevalence rate, indicating how the medical infrastructure might be unable to contain a new epidemic like Ebola.
The government wants to finish uncompleted structures at the TB hospital and to erect tents to accommodate any Swazis who might be infected with Ebola.
Last week, a government delegation met hospital staff and admitted the country has no protective gear for medical workers or other technology required to treat Ebola patients. The materials would come, workers were told, and nurses would be given monetary incentives to work at the Ebola centre.
On Monday, nurses and hospital staff left their posts and confronted construction workers who arrived with heavy equipment to level an area where tents are to be erected. The nurses were joined by area residents who had not been briefed by the government.
“They want to put a place for people with this deadly disease in the most densely populated part of the country. The Health Ministry… has never contained Aids. Swaziland has the highest HIV infection rate in the world. The Health Ministry has never contained TB. When Ebola comes to Swaziland it will be disaster. We just don’t want to live across the street from ground zero,” said Adam Thwala, a store manager whose family home is close to the hospital.
Neighbours noted their success in turning around the construction team at the workers’ first attempt to do groundwork, and vowed to continue opposing the project.
The hospital administration could not be reached for comment on Tuesday. But a Health Ministry source said construction of the Ebola Centre would continue, under police guard if necessary.
“Medical workers treating Ebola patients will do so on a voluntary basis. No one will be forced to treat Ebola patients. As for the neighbours, they will be safe as long as they do not interact with Ebola patients, who will be in isolation anyway. Ebola is transmitted through physical contact with an infected person,” the ministry official said.
The neighbours remain doubtful. “We don’t have to go to the Ebola patients if they come to us. Patients are always running away from the National Psychiatric Centre. They are going to put Ebola people in tents!” said Thwala. - Independent Foreign Service
The Star