Aust-funded Ebola clinic up and running

An Australian-funded Ebola treatment centre in Sierra Leone has treated 16 patients since it opened a fortnight ago.

Foreign Minister Julie Bishop said there were 26 Australian health workers at the centre.

A further 38 have completed training in Canberra and are on their way there.

"It's so important to manage it at its source," Ms Bishop told Fairfax radio on Tuesday.

The Abbott government has allocated $45 million to the outbreak in addition to money given to the World Health Organisation.

"I think it's been a substantial, but proportionate response on Australia's behalf," Ms Bishop said.

The clinic's operation comes after months of criticism that the federal government's initial response was "lethally inadequate".

British engineers built the 100-bed treatment centre at Hastings airfield, near the Sierra Leone capital, and handed it to the Australian mission in mid-December.

Ebola has killed more than 7500 people, almost all of them in west Africa.