The United Nations World Health Organization (WHO) will launch a US$100 Million response plan to combat the “unprecedented” Ebola outbreak in West Africa.  This comes as the Ebola death toll is updated to 729 out of 1,323 patients killed since the outbreak began in February.

“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 co-ordination,” said WHO Director General Margaret Chan. 

She’ll meet with the presidents of the affected West African nations in Conakry, Guinea, on Friday, and then put out a call to donor nations for “several hundred more personnel” to go to the three main countries affected by the outbreak.  West Africa’s health systems were not prepared to deal with the outbreak, and are buckling under the stress.  The local population doesn’t trust the charity doctors who’ve attempted to help; there’ve been minor clashes outside hospitals, and patients diagnosed with Ebola have gone on the run, spreading the disease even more.

“The plan sets out new needs to respond to the outbreak across the countries and bring up the level of preparedness in neighboring countries,” said WHO spokesman Paul Garwood said.  “They need better information and infection-control measures.”

Meanwhile, America is reportedly moving to evacuate two of its citizens who’ve contracted Ebola disease from Liberia, and at least one will be taken to a special, sealed wing of Emory University Hospital in Atlanta.  It’s one of only four such ultra-quarantined facilities in America.  They weren’t named, but it’s known that a doctor from Texas and a civilian volunteer from North Carolina came down with Ebola.

The US Centers for Disease Control (CDC) has issued its first high level travel warning in more than a decade, warning people against traveling to Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.