Ebola is 'entrenched and accelerating' in West Africa Published duration 10 October 2014

media caption US public health director Thomas Frieden: "This is controllable and this was preventable"

The World Health Organization (WHO) has warned that Ebola is now entrenched in the capital cities of all three worst-affected countries and is accelerating in almost all settings.

WHO deputy head Bruce Aylward warned that the world's response was not keeping up with the disease in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.

The three countries have appealed for more aid to help fight the disease.

The outbreak has killed more than 3,860 people, mainly in West Africa.

More than 200 health workers are among the victims.

Speaking on Thursday, Mr Aylward said the situation was worse than it was 12 days ago.

"The disease is entrenched in the capitals, 70% of the people affected are definitely dying from this disease, and it is accelerating in almost all of the settings," he said.

The medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) reported a sharp increase of Ebola cases in the Guinean capital, Conakry, dashing hopes that that the disease was being stabilised there.

Speaking to the BBC on Friday, MSF President Joanna Liu called for urgent international action.

"We're not winning the battle," she said.

"To get ahead of the game we're going to need to deploy much more massively than what we have done so far."

At least one in 20 of those killed in the latest outbreak were medical workers, she said.

image copyright EPA image caption Ebola is taking a particularly bad toll in Liberia

image copyright Getty Images image caption The US emphasis in Liberia is on providing treatment for sick health workers

Meanwhile in Spain, seven more people are being monitored in hospital for Ebola.

They include two hairdressers who came into contact with Teresa Romero, a Madrid nurse who looked after an Ebola patient who had been repatriated from West Africa.

Elsewhere:

More than 1300 Nigerian peacekeeping troops have been quarantined in Liberia after coming into contact with a Sudanese man who later died of the disease

In Liberia, senate elections due next week have been postponed to help reduce the risk of voters spreading the virus

More details of how passengers at some British airports will be screened are expected to be announced later on Friday

The US begins its programme of enhanced screening this weekend at five of its major airports, including JFK

A Texas county sheriff deputy quarantined after visiting the home of the first person diagnosed with Ebola in the US has been given the all-clear.

image copyright Reuters image caption The US is preparing to send troops to West Africa to fight Ebola

Avoid direct contact with sick patients

Wear goggles to protect eyes

Clothing and clinical waste should be incinerated and any medical equipment that needs to be kept should be decontaminated

People who recover from Ebola should abstain from sex or use condoms for three months

'Our people dying'

On Thursday top US medical official Thomas Frieden said that the Ebola outbreak in West Africa was unlike anything since the emergence of HIV/Aids.

He told a meeting in Washington: "In the 30 years I've been working in public health, the only thing like this has been Aids," he said.

Sierra Leone President Ernest Bai Koroma told the meeting that "our people are dying".

He said that the world was not responding fast enough as children were being orphaned.

media caption Fears have heightened that the deadly virus could be spreading further afield

A Liberian doctor died of the disease at a treatment centre in Monrovia on Thursday.

His death brings to four the number of doctors who have died in Liberia since the outbreak.

Nigerian success?

The EU has announced plans for a system to evacuate international staff from Ebola-infected countries if they show signs of the disease.

The move is expected to make it easier to deploy European medical workers to combat the crisis in West Africa.

Nigeria's government says 200 healthcare workers have volunteered to be sent to Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea as part of a global response team on Ebola.