WHO launching $125 million plan to combat Ebola

GENEVA (REUTERS) - The World Health Organisation is launching a US$100 million (S$125 million) response plan to combat an "unprecendented" outbreak of Ebola in West Africa that has killed 729 people out of 1,323 infected since February, the agency said on Thursday.

WHO Director-General Margaret Chan will meet in Conakry, Guinea on Friday with the presidents of affected West African nations, the United Nations health agency said in a statement.

"The scale of the Ebola outbreak, and the persistent threat it poses, requires WHO and Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone to take the response to a new level and this will require increased resources, in-country medical expertise, regional preparedness and coordination," said Ms Chan.

Clinical doctors and nurses, epidemiologists, and logisticians are urgently needed, she said.

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