Ebola death toll passes 1,900, says WHO

The World Health Organisation (WHO) says more than 1,900 people have now died in West Africa's Ebola outbreak.

WHO head Margaret Chan said there were 3,500 confirmed or probable cases in Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia.

"The outbreaks are racing ahead of the control efforts in these countries," she said.

On Thursday the WHO is holding a meeting to examine the most promising treatments and to discuss how to fast track their testing and production.

Disease control experts, medical researchers, officials from affected countries, and specialists in medical ethics will all be represented at the meeting in Geneva.

The WHO has previously warned that more than 20,000 people could be infected before the outbreak of the virus is brought under control.

Ms Chan described the outbreak as "the largest and most severe and most complex we have ever seen".

"No one, even outbreak responders with experience dating back to 1976, to 1995, people that were directly involved with those outbreaks, none of them have ever seen anything like it," she said.

Forty per cent of the deaths have occurred in three weeks leading up to 3 September, the WHO says.

(BBC News)

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