Key figures from the international community will gather in London to discuss how best to address the Ebola crisis ravaging west Africa.

Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond, Development Secretary Justine Greening and Ernest Bai Koroma, the president of Sierra Leone, will be among those taking part at the event at Lancaster House in central London.

Participating countries will discuss what can be done to slow the worst ever outbreak of the Ebola virus, which has so far claimed more than 3,000 lives, according to the World Health Organisation.

Sierra Leone and the UK are expected to urge officials to contribute extra funding for extra hospital beds and staff.

Read: Sierra Leone quarantines 'two million' in Ebola fight

Read: NHS staff to join fight against Ebola in Sierra Leone

Justine Greening said:

Britain is working urgently with Sierra Leone to scale up the international response to the disease. Justine Greening

The UK Government has already promised a further £20 million to aid stretched health services in Sierra Leone on top of its existing £100 million action plan.

Experts have warned that the outbreak in West Africa has developed at an unprecedented scale with the current rate of infection standing at 1.7, meaning that for every 10 people that contract the virus a further 17 will also be infected.

The aim is to get the rate down to one, and eventually below one, in the fight to stop the spread of the deadly disease.

Read: First US Ebola patient 'flew to Texas via Washington DC'

The deadly Ebola virus is believed to be carried by fruit bats. Credit: PA

Aid has been donated by the World Bank and Gates Foundation and volunteers are finally arriving to help, after Doctors Without Borders urged more people to come forward.

However, international efforts have not been enough to save the thousands infected across Sierra Leone, Liberia, Guinea, Senegal, Nigeria, D.R Congo and now, the USA.

Manuel Fontaine, Unicef regional director for west and central Africa, warned the ramifications of this outbreak would be felt across future generations: