The death toll in the West African Ebola Outbreak is at least 932 according to the UN World Health Organization (WHO).  The accelerating death toll has the WHO considering the declaration of an international public health emergency.  The fourth nation to report Ebola deaths already has.

Nigeria's Health Minister says Ebola is now a national emergency as fears rise that the virus is spreading in Africa’s most populous country.  A nurse is dead of Ebola after treating the country’s first Ebola patient, identified as Liberian-American businessman Patrick Sawyer who was symptomatic on a plane ride to from Monrovia to Lagos.  Nigeria confirms that five more patients – all healthcare workers who treated Sawyer – tested positive for Ebola in the sprawling port city of 21 million people.  Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf also declared a state of emergency.

In Saudi Arabia, the health ministry says a man suspected of contracting Ebola during a recent business trip to Sierra Leone died early on Wednesday in Jeddah.  They had already sent samples to the World Health Organization for testing after the man came down with symptoms of hemorrhagic fever.  Saudi Arabia is still reeling from its botched response to the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) epidemic that killed nearly 300 people.

This possibly adds Saudi Arabia to the list of countries with confirmed cases of Ebola:  Guinea, where it began; Sierra Leone and Liberia, where it spread; and Nigeria, where it arrived on a passenger plane.  The deaths in Saudi Arabia and Nigeria occurred after officials compiled the latest death toll, 932.

The WHO is convening a panel of medical ethicists to explore the use of experimental treatments for Ebola.

“We are in an unusual situation in this outbreak,” Said WHO’s assistant director general Dr. Marie-Paule Kieny.  “We have a disease with a high fatality rate without any proven treatment or vaccine,” she added while acknowledging, “We need to ask the medical ethicists to give us guidance on what the responsible thing to do is.”

At the top of the agenda will be the experimental, untested drug given to two American aid workers who caught Ebola in Liberia.  It has never been tested and shown to be safe in people – but at the moment, it appears to have saved the Americans’ lives.

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is ramping up its response to Ebola, declaring a “Level One Activation”.  The move that frees up hundreds of employees to work on fighting the outbreak, and shows the agency views the West African Ebola Outbreak emergency as a potentially long and serious one.

Also in the US, officials say a man in New York City’s Mount Sinai Hospital does not have Ebola.