SAN
FRANCISCO/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Thousands of nurses across the United
States staged protest rallies and strikes on Wednesday over what they
say is insufficient protection for health workers dealing with patients
possibly stricken with the deadly Ebola virus.
California-based National Nurses United had expected about
100,000 nurses nationwide to participate in the protest, but officials
from the union could not say on Thursday afternoon how many people took
part.
The union
is embroiled in contract talks with the operators of nearly 90
California hospitals and clinics, and one hospital in Washington, D.C.
About 19,000 nurses who on Tuesday began a two-day strike
against those California facilities were part of the Ebola measures
protest, which in other parts of the country did not involve nurses
walking off the job.
Healthcare provider Kaiser Permanente, which operates most of the
California facilities where the nurses were striking, has accused the
union of using Ebola as a pretext to justify labor action.
The nurses
are pressing hospitals to buy hazardous materials suits which leave no
skin exposed, as well as powered air-purifying respirators, to properly
protect nurses from exposure, and they are calling for more training to
handle patients suspected of having Ebola.
"The best way to protect our community is to protect our
nurses," said Evan Brost, a nurse who joined more than 30 people in a
protest outside the White House over Ebola measures.
Elsewhere, protests took place in Chicago, Oakland, and
outside the offices of some state governors, said National Nurses United
Executive Director Rose Ann DeMoro.
The U.S.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says it has ordered $2.7
million worth of personal protective equipment to help hospitals care
for Ebola patients, but union officials contend that is not enough. A
CDC spokeswoman declined to comment on the protest.
Representatives from Kaiser Permanente and the American
Hospital Association could not be reached for comment on Wednesday.
The last U.S. patient being treated for Ebola recovered from the disease on Tuesday.
The Ebola epidemic has killed nearly 5,000 people in West
Africa but only one person, a Liberian native, has died in the United
States. Two nurses who treated the man at a Dallas hospital contracted
Ebola but recovered.
Medical experts say Ebola can be transmitted only through the bodily fluids of a sick person with symptoms.