A medical relief group treating Ebola victims in West Africa says a growing number of affected areas and limited resources are making it difficult to control the epidemic, which has killed more than 700 people.

Doctors Without Borders says the situation in Liberia is "dire" because of a lack of trained personnel and resources.

The group says there have been "critical gaps" in the Ebola response in Sierra Leone and Liberia and a resurgence of new infections in Guinea.

The relief group released its assessment as the World Health Organization (WHO) and leaders of the affected countries met in Guinea Friday to finalize a $100 million emergency response plan.

WHO chief Margaret Chan said hundreds of additional health care workers will be deployed to the region.

She also said Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia have agreed to send security forces to isolate rural areas where most cases of Ebola have been detected.

US relief worker evacuated

In another development Saturday, relief workers said one of two American aid workers suffering from Ebola is being evacuated to the U.S. and is traveling to the U.S. for treatment.

Both Americans - a physician and a nurse working for a private charity group - are in serious condition despite intensive treatment in Liberia. A jet carrying a mobile isolation unit is returning them to the United States for treatment at a hospital in Atlanta, Georgia, equipped to house patients under strict quarantine conditions.

The physician was evacuated Saturday, and the nurse will be flown to Atlanta on a later flight. The small jet involved in returning them can hold only one person in isolation at a time.

President Barack Obama said Friday that the United States is closely following the situation in West Africa ahead of a summit in the coming week in Washington for nearly 50 African leaders. He said African officials from at-risk countries will be screened for the disease before entering the United States.

The leaders of Sierra Leone and Liberia have canceled their summit trips to Washington because of the Ebola outbreak.

Ebola is one of several deadly viral diseases identified in recent years in Africa. All are hemorrhagic fevers. Ebola virus can travel to a healthy person who is exposed to the blood or bodily fluids of an infected person. Despite extensive research, no vaccine has yet been developed to protect against the Ebola virus.

Once infected, a person usually experiences extremely high fever, vomiting, diarrhea, pain throughout the body and - in the final stages - uncontrollable bleeding from the eyes, ears, nose and all other body openings. Previous outbreaks have been fatal for up to 90 percent of those infected, but the mortality rate may be lower for the current epidemic as doctors have kept a number of patients alive with prompt hospital treatment. [Read More]

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Source: VOA News: Economy and Finance