WHO plays down possibility of major Ebola outbreak in West

PanARMENIAN.Net - A major outbreak of Ebola in the U.S. and elsewhere in the West is unlikely given the strong health systems, the World Health Organisation (WHO) says, according to BBC News.

U.S. President Barack Obama also said the risk of Americans getting the virus was "extremely low", although he ordered a "much more aggressive response".

The U.S. is investigating how a nurse infected when treating a victim in Texas was allowed to travel on a plane. Officials are trying to trace the 132 people who flew with Amber Vinson.

The disease has killed about 4,500 people so far, mostly in Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone.

EU health ministers will meet in Brussels to discuss the crisis, including the possibility of sending more troops to West Africa to help contain the virus.

U.S. health officials are facing new questions about the response to Ebola infections in Texas. Liberian Thomas Eric Duncan was treated at the Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital but died of the disease. Two nurses, Nina Pham and Amber Vinson, contracted Ebola after treating him.

Both wore face shields, hazardous materials suits and protective footwear as they drew blood and dealt with Mr Duncan's body fluids and it remains unclear how they were infected.

Ms Vinson later contacted the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to inform it she was travelling on a plane on Monday - Frontier Airlines Flight 1143 from Cleveland to Dallas-Fort Worth. She reported a temperature of 99.5F (37.5C).

CDC director Thomas Frieden said she should not have travelled on a commercial flight. However, another health official told the New York Times later that Ms Vinson was not prevented from flying because the temperature was mildly elevated and was in a category not covered by the CDC.

Officials are trying to trace all 132 passengers but insist that as Ms Vinson did not have a fever, the risk to to "any around that individual on the plane would have been extremely low". Ms Vinson has now been transferred to Emory University hospital in Atlanta.

Mr Duncan, who was the first person to be diagnosed in the U.S. with Ebola, started showing symptoms of the disease just days after he arrived in Texas from Liberia. The 48 people, including his girlfriend, who were in contact with him before he was admitted to hospital are nearing the end of the window in which they could develop an Ebola infection.

Campaign group Avaaz said it had identified more than 2,000 international volunteers, including hundreds of doctors and nurses, who are willing to help fight the Ebola outbreak in West Africa.

Meanwhile, the head of a United Nations agency said that the West African states affected by the outbreak were facing a looming food crisis.