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'World must do more to fight Ebola in Africa'

plea: US president Barack Obama at the United Nations meeting on the Ebola outbreak Photo: Kevin lamarque/Reuters
plea: US president Barack Obama at the United Nations meeting on the Ebola outbreak Photo: Kevin lamarque/Reuters

LONDON - US president Barack Obama on Thursday called on more nations to help fight the world's worst outbreak of the deadly Ebola virus, saying hundreds of thousands of lives were at stake.

The warning came shortly after the World Health Organisation gave a rare hint of optimism in the West African crisis, announcing that the spread of the disease in Guinea appeared to have stabilised.

Sierra Leone has quarantined three more districts in its fight against Ebola. The government has put three more districts under indefinite quarantine in a bid to fight the virus, President Ernest Bai Koroma said.

This means five of the country's 14 districts have now been isolated. The quarantined districts include Port Loko and Bombali in the north and Moyamba in the south, according to a statement Koroma gave late on Wednesday.

Canada says poor global coordination has bogged down its efforts to deliver its Ebola vaccine shipments to Africa, a Canadian minister said on Thursday, six weeks after Ottawa offered to make a donation to help fight the deadly outbreak.

The Canadian government said it would donate between 800 and 1000 doses of its VSV-EBOV vaccine to the World Health Organisation (WHO) for use in Africa.

The vaccine remains in a government lab as Canadian and WHO officials grapple with logistical and ethical issues.

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