An Australian nurse has been airlifted to Britain after an incident while treating Ebola patients in west Africa.
Foreign affairs officials said the nurse had not been diagnosed with Ebola, but was transferred from Sierra Leone as a precautionary measure.
The nurse was working at a treatment centre funded by the Australian government.
Australia’s foreign affairs minister, Julie Bishop, said the transfer was triggered by “a low-risk clinical incident” and the nurse would now undergo a 21-day observation period in the UK.
“The nurse was transferred to the UK consistent with the guarantees secured by the Australian government as a condition to establishing the treatment centre,” she said.
“The Australian-funded Ebola treatment centre has strict infection prevention protocols in place, and the safety of staff and patients is paramount.”
The government announced in November it would provide $20m for a private company, Aspen Medical, to run the UK-built medical centre in Sierra Leone – one of the countries worst affected by the Ebola outbreak.
The 100-bed facility is at Hastings Airfield, close to the capital Freetown.
In late November, 17 health workers left Australia to make their way to the treatment centre.
Australia sent a second group of workers when the centre opened in mid-December.
At the time the government said the clinic had begun operation with five beds “in line with best practice” and would gradually scale up to full capacity of 100 beds.
It would operate “under strict guidelines to ensure infection control procedures are working effectively and trained staff and safety practices are in place”.
Bishop said on Friday the centre was currently operating at a capacity of 38 beds, which would likely rise to 50 by early February. She said 18 patients had recovered and been discharged.
0 comments:
Post a Comment