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UK opens new Ebola treatment centre in Sierra Leone

A new British funded and staffed health centre to treat people with the deadly virus Ebola has opened in Kerry Town, near the Sierra Leone capital Freetown.

UK Ebola treatment centre in Sierra Leone

The new 92-bed treatment facility will be jointly operated by the UK’s Department for International Development (DfID) and charity organisation, Save the Children.

The centre includes an 80-bed treatment centre to be managed by Save the Children and a 12-bed centre staffed by British Army medics specifically for health care workers and international staff responding to the Ebola crisis.

The facility is the first of six which are being built by the UK Government as part of efforts to stop the spread of the disease.

Construction of the new facility was funded by the DfID, while it was designed and overseen by British Army Royal Engineers.

The scale of the Ebola crisis has left Sierra Leone with a severe shortage of beds to treat Ebola patients. The WHO estimates that there are currently just 326 treatment beds in Sierra Leone.

The new Kerry Town facility also includes a new blood testing laboratory run by British scientists to accurately diagnose patients.

International Development Secretary Justine Greening said: "Sierra Leone does not have enough hospital beds to cope with the scale of the Ebola crisis. Patients are being turned away from hospitals, reducing their chance of survival and allowing the disease to spread.

"That is why British Army Engineers together with Sierra Leonean construction workers have been working round the clock for the last eight weeks to get Kerry Town built.

"This treatment facility, the first of six British-built centres, will give patients the care they need to fight Ebola, limiting the spread of this terrible disease."

The new treatment facility also provides dedicated beds for infected healthcare workers and separate sites for confirmed and suspected cases.

In order to help run the new Kerry Town Ebola treatment centre, Save the Children charity is recruiting more than 200 clinical staff as well as many more support staff.

It is reported that construction has already started on five other treatment facilities, at Port Loko, Makeni, Moyamba, and two more centres in Freetown.

Following completion of these facilities, the number of UK-supported beds will be increased to over 700, providing direct medical care to about 8,800 patients over six months.


Image: British Army Engineers and Sierra Leonean workers at the new Ebola treatment centre construction site. Photo: courtesy of Rob Holden Photography/DFID/Save the Children.