Health workers suit up in protective clothing before taking people suspected of having Ebola to a reopened Ebola holding centre in Monrovia, Liberia, yesterday

Deaths caused by Ebola in West Africa will double every three to four weeks if the global community continues to delay its response, the United Nations has said.

Powerful, rich nations including China, Japan and Russia and several EU countries with significant aid budgets have made only minor cash or aid contributions so far.

A $1bn (£620m) UN fund set up last month has so far received only a paltry $100,000 – from Colombia.

David Cameron said yesterday that it was time for other countries to "look at their responsibilities and their resources", while the US Secretary of State John Kerry warned that "no country is exempt" from the fight against Ebola.

Screening for travellers arriving in Britain from affected areas in West Africa is to be extended to Manchester and Birmingham airports, the head of Public Health England said yesterday.

Duncan Selbie said that once the existing measures covering Heathrow, Gatwick and the Eurostar terminal at St Pancras had "settled", they would be rolled out to other ports of entry.

As the official death toll in the outbreak passed 4,500 yesterday, the UN's special envoy on Ebola, Dr David Nabarro, warned that an "extraordinary response" was needed quickly and that every three to four weeks' delay would lead to "double the suffering and double the death and double the overall damage to the economy and societies of these great countries that have been affected".

Anger is growing at the slowness of the international response.

Former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said he has been "bitterly disappointed". Mr Cameron has written to all 26 EU leaders as well as European Council President Herman van Rompuy calling for agreement on an "ambitious package of support".

Meanwhile, in a leaked document the World Health Organisation admitted it botched its initial response to the outbreak, saying "nearly everyone involved in the outbreak response failed to see some fairly plain writing on the wall".

A health care worker who handled a lab specimen from an Ebola-infected man from Liberia is on a Caribbean cruise ship where she has self-quarantined and is being monitored. US State Department spokeswoman said the woman had shown no signs of the disease.

Belfast Telegraph