Ebola outbreak: Bodies of victims are 'left in the streets' as burial teams go on strike

According to reports, workers have complained that they have not been paid

Volunteers in protective suit bury the body of a person who died from Ebola in Waterloo, Sierra Leone, some 30 kilometers southeast of Freetown (FLORIAN PLAUCHEUR/AFP/Getty Images)

The bodies of Ebola victims in Sierra Leone have been left in the streets after burial teams have gone on strike, it has been reported.

The Sierra Leone Broadcasting Corporation said workers have complained that they have not been paid.

Health Ministry spokesman Sidie Yahya Tunis said the situation was "very embarrassing" and that money was available to pay the teams.

The World Health Organization has said Ebola has killed more than 3,400 people in West Africa and infected at least twice that many.

The organisation's European director Zsuzsanna Jakab said yesterday that Europe would almost certainly see more cases after a Spanish nurse became the first to be infected with the disease outside Africa.

Four people including the nurse's husband were admitted to hospital for observation. One of the four, another nurse, who had diarrhoea but no fever, tested negative for the virus, a Spanish health source said.

A United Nations committee has approved $49 million to help fund the global body's unprecedented emergency mission to combat Ebola.

The General Assembly budget committee on Tuesday adopted a resolution supporting the UN secretary-general's funding request, which is expected to cover operations through the end of December.

It is the first mission the UN has created in response to a public health crisis.

The Ghana-based mission has offices in the three Ebola-affected countries in West Africa: Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea.

The UN last week said it had lost its first staff member, a Liberian national, to "probable" Ebola.

Additional reporting by Associated Press