The Australian-funded Ebola treatment centre in Sierra Leone will shut its doors at the end of the month, following a stabilisation of the outbreak in West Africa.
Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop announced on Monday that Australia’s sole facility, at Hastings airfield, near Sierra Leone’s capital Freetown, would close on April 30.
Ms Bishop said the decision followed a process led by the government of Sierra Leone to rationalise and consolidate Ebola treatment centres.
“The number of new infections in Sierra Leone are decreasing, and there are now more treatment beds available than new patients in Sierra Leone,” Ms Bishop said in a statement.
Since opening in mid-December, the British-built, Australian-managed facility has admitted 216 patients, 36 of whom were successfully treated for Ebola. A further 120 patients were monitored and discharged after testing negative for Ebola.
The earlier-than-expected closure of the facility will allow the Australian government to return $7.5 million of unspent funds to its emergency humanitarian fund. Australia contributed a total of $37 million to the international Ebola response.
Ms Bishop congratulated Aspen Medical – the firm that Australia engaged to staff and manage the facility on its behalf – for the professional manner in which it had completed its task.
“Over 250 Sierra Leonean staff have been trained at Australia’s [Ebola treatment centre], building skills and capacity in Sierra Leone,” Ms Bishop said.
No local or international staff employed at the centre contracted Ebola. Three staff members were medically evacuated to the United Kingdom as a precaution but were later found not to have contracted the virus.
More than 25,000 people have contracted the virus in the current outbreak, and more than 10,000 people have died in the three worst-affected countries of Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea.
Sierra Leone alone has recorded 12,201 cases and 3857 deaths.