4 Indian doctors want to return home from Ebola-hit Nigeria

August 13, 2014

Indian doctors
New Delhi, Aug 13: Four Indian doctors, who claim they are being forced to treat Ebola patients against their will in Nigeria, want to return home and appealed to the Indian government to facilitate this.

The Abuja-based Indian private hospital Primus where they are working, meanwhile, appealed to them not to abandon their duties.

The Indian High Commission in Nigeria is also in touch with the four doctors and Primus hospital so that both sides could arrive at an amicable solution.

The doctors claim that their passports have been taken away and they are being threatened against leaving the country, a charge denied by the Primus hospital in the Nigerian capital Abuja.

"The Indian High Commissioner is in touch with the doctors. Both the hospital and the doctors have agreed to come to an amicable solution," sources in the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said.

The sources said there was no major issue as the hospital is also owned by Indians.

They said the hospital is also correct when they say that there are no cases of Ebola in Abuja.

The MEA Spokesperson Syed Akbarudin said the Indian High Commissioner A R Ghanshyam had explained to him that the four doctors are not inclined to stay back in Nigeria and would like to return.

The Spokesperson appealed to the doctors to have patience, saying the High Commissioner is focusing to resolve the matter as early as possible.

"We are waiting outside the High Commission premises for the past 34 hours," said Dr Dinesh, one of the doctors. "We want our passports back. I cannot live here," Dr Yogesh said in a voice choked with emotion.

The Primus hospital has issued an advisory to all its doctors working in Abuja to continue offering medical services "in the best interest of humanity". "Unfortunately, in a state of panic, one orthopedic surgeon working at Primus hospital, Abuja, Nigeria abandoned his services and is alleged to have left Abuja committing medical negligence though he was bound by the medical ethics to provide care to patients admitted under him.

"Another four doctors (general surgeon, intensivist, anesthetist and physician) want to leave the hospital on the pretext of Ebola Virus Alert after admitting patients requiring intense medical and surgical management," said Dr ND Khurana, Chief Operating Officer of Primus hospital here.

"This will bring bad name to India. Ethically and legally, they are duty bound to render their services uninterruptedly but they are shirking their duty in this hour of need," he said. Khurana said as per his knowledge, no such type of virus (Ebola) has been yet detected nor any patient admitted in any hospital in Abuja. The information circulated by WHO is of preventive nature and the public healthcare workers are required to observe safety measures as per standard guidelines, he added.

As per the hospital, only two patients were detected to be affected by Ebola at Lagos several days ago and till date no fresh case has been reported. Lagos is at a distance of over 800 km from our hospital in Abuja, Khurana said.

The current outbreak, described as the worst since Ebola was first discovered four decades ago, has now killed 1,013 people. Cases have so far been limited to Guinea, Liberia, Sierra Leone and Nigeria, all in west Africa.

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News Network
May 3,2024

UScampusprotst.jpg

US riot police have dismantled an anti-war and pro-Palestinian protest camp at the University of California at Los Angeles, a day after it was attacked by pro-Israel supporters.

At least 200 pro-Palestine protesters were arrested during the pre-dawn raid, led by a phalanx of California Highway Patrol officers carrying shields and batons, early on Thursday.

The protesters tried to block the officers' advance by their sheer numbers, shouting "push them back", while hundreds of pro-Palestinian activists who assembled outside the tent city were heard chanting "Shame on you" at the police.

According to estimates of local television station KABC-TV, 300 to 500 protesters were hunkered down inside the camp, while about 2,000 more had gathered outside the barricades in support.

The raid took place about a day after police watched on as pro-Israel groups violently attacked the encampment. Late Tuesday night, masked counter-demonstrators mounted a surprise assault on the camp, using sticks to beat the peaceful activists.

The assault went on for three hours into early Wednesday morning until police intervened and restored order.

The authorities’ slow response drew wide criticism from political leaders, including a spokesperson for California Governor Gavin Newsom who said "limited and delayed campus law enforcement response" to the unrest is "unacceptable."

The Pro-Palestine demonstrations began at Columbia University in New York City on April 17, and have spread across other campuses in the US in a student movement unlike any other this century.

US police arrested about 2,200 people during pro-Palestinian protests at college campuses across the country in recent weeks, the Associated Press reported.

A tally by the news agency recorded at least 56 incidents of arrests at 43 different US colleges or universities since April 18.

The students are calling for an end to Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza and demanding schools divest from companies that support the Israeli regime.

Israel launched the war on Gaza on October 7 after the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas waged the surprise Operation Al-Aqsa Storm against the occupying entity in response to the Israeli regime's decades-long campaign of bloodletting and devastation against Palestinians.

Tel Aviv has also blocked water, food, and electricity to Gaza, plunging the coastal strip into a humanitarian crisis.

Since the start of the offensive, the Israeli regime has killed at least 34,596 Palestinians and injured 77,816 others.

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