Brace for Ebola, WHO chief tells East Asia

World Health Organisation chief Dr Margaret Chan Fung Fu-chun urged East Asian and Pacific countries to strengthen defences against the Ebola outbreak, warning the whole world may be at risk.

The region of 1.8 billion has been a hotspot for many emerging diseases including severe acute respiratory syndrome and bird flu, but is so far free from the Ebola virus ravaging West Africa.

"In the simplest terms, this outbreak shows how one of the deadliest pathogens on earth can exploit any weakness in the health infrastructure," Chan, formerly Hong Kong's director of health, told a meeting of Western Pacific health officials.

The WHO has called the Ebola outbreak "the most severe, acute health emergency seen in modern times" but said economic disruption could be curtailed if people did not act irrationally to avoid catching it.

More than 4,000 people have died from Ebola in seven countries this year.

Meanwhile, most Liberian health care workers on the frontline of the battle against Ebola ignored calls to strike over poor pay and conditions. Alphonso Weah, head of medical staff at the government's 150-bed Island Clinic in the capital Monrovia, said workers had decided to come in after appeals from the public.