Nurses strike to demand protection from contagious disease

Nurses in Cote d'Ivoire's government-run hospitals and health centres have begun an indefinite strike to demand better protection from contagious diseases following the death of six nurses from infections contracted from their patients. Francois Tiemele, spokesman for the National Union of Nurses of Cote d'Ivoire (SYNICI), told IRIN that 90 percent of the organisation's 7,000 members walked out when the strike began on Monday. "In the last three years six of our colleagues have died because they are exposed to infectious diseasess such as AIDS and tuberculosis and the authorities have not reacted," he said. SYNICI Secretary General Kuoao Boko said the union wanted the government to supply nurses with disposable rubber gloves and face masks and pay them a risk premium of about 10 percent on top of their basic monthly salary of 140,000 CFA francs (US $230) per month. Officials at the three main university teaching hospitals in Abidjan said doctors and assistant nurses, who belong to different unions, continued to work normally on Tuesday, but hardly any nurses had turned up for duty. Tiemele told IRIN that the strike did not affect privately-run hospitals and health clinics, where working conditions for nurses were generally better. The union spokesman said nurses were not asking the government to provide the extra money and safety equipment immediately, but to do so by January 1 2005. A last-minute meeting with Health Ministry officials on Monday failed to achieve a breakthrough in negotiations, but Boko said union representatives received a sympathetic hearing from a senior aide of President Laurent Gbagbo on Tuesday. Health Ministry spokeswomen Laure Anidie said the nurses demands were justified, but it was unreasonable of them to go on strike while the country's fragile peace process was in the midst of a crisis. The stoppage only affects hospitals and health centres in the government-controlled south of Cote d'Ivoire. According to Health Ministry figures, about 3,500 doctors and nurses have abandoned government-run health facilities in the rebel-held north. According to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) and other non-governmental organisations active in the north, health services in the rebel zone are only functioning at 30 percent of their normal capacity.