NEW DELHI, Aug 12 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Four
Indian doctors in Nigeria say they are being forced to treat Ebola
patients against their will and have accused their employers of taking
away their passports to stop them leaving the country, the Hindustan Times reported on Tuesday.
The doctors, who are working at the Primus Hospital in the Nigerian capital Abuja, said despite their fear of contracting the disease, they were ordered not to leave.
"We haven’t been provided with any security kits. Our passports have been impounded. When we spoke to the Indian High Commission, we were asked to come to the mission. But we were stopped by guards from leaving the hospital," one doctor was quoted as saying.
He said the Indian doctors were forced to work after local physicians – who have been on strike – refused to come back to work.
N.D. Khurana, CEO of Primus Hospital in India, confirmed the doctors were afraid of contracting the disease but said it was their duty to treat patients, adding it was "against medical morality" not to do so.
Government sources, however, told the newspaper that the situation has now been resolved with the intervention of the Indian High Commission in Nigeria. The doctors have agreed to work a few more days and then return to India.
The death toll from the world's worst outbreak of Ebola has climbed to 1,013, according to figures from the World Health Organization which has called its spread an international health emergency.
Nigeria's commercial capital Lagos has 10 confirmed cases of Ebola and two patients have died. Africa's most populous nation has declared a national emergency over the outbreak.
There are 40,000 Indians living in Nigeria and another 4,700 in the other affected West African countries - Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia.
Indian authorities fear a return of many of its citizens due to the outbreak will increase the risk of the disease being imported into the country and are introducing measures to screen and track travellers from the four nations.
A man who returned from Nigerian over the weekend displaying symptoms of upper respiratory tract infection has tested negative for Ebola, the health ministry said on Monday.
The doctors, who are working at the Primus Hospital in the Nigerian capital Abuja, said despite their fear of contracting the disease, they were ordered not to leave.
"We haven’t been provided with any security kits. Our passports have been impounded. When we spoke to the Indian High Commission, we were asked to come to the mission. But we were stopped by guards from leaving the hospital," one doctor was quoted as saying.
He said the Indian doctors were forced to work after local physicians – who have been on strike – refused to come back to work.
N.D. Khurana, CEO of Primus Hospital in India, confirmed the doctors were afraid of contracting the disease but said it was their duty to treat patients, adding it was "against medical morality" not to do so.
Government sources, however, told the newspaper that the situation has now been resolved with the intervention of the Indian High Commission in Nigeria. The doctors have agreed to work a few more days and then return to India.
The death toll from the world's worst outbreak of Ebola has climbed to 1,013, according to figures from the World Health Organization which has called its spread an international health emergency.
Nigeria's commercial capital Lagos has 10 confirmed cases of Ebola and two patients have died. Africa's most populous nation has declared a national emergency over the outbreak.
There are 40,000 Indians living in Nigeria and another 4,700 in the other affected West African countries - Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia.
Indian authorities fear a return of many of its citizens due to the outbreak will increase the risk of the disease being imported into the country and are introducing measures to screen and track travellers from the four nations.
A man who returned from Nigerian over the weekend displaying symptoms of upper respiratory tract infection has tested negative for Ebola, the health ministry said on Monday.
