In the past, leprosy patients in Fiji were isolated on the island of Makogai. The government bought the island and operated it as a leprosy colony for 58 years until 1969. As the number of patients declined, the facility was closed and the remaining residents were transferred to Twomey Hospital in the capital Suva. The cemetery on Makogai has some 1,500 graves where both patients and staff were laid to rest side by side.