Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf has appealed to U.S. President Barack Obama for urgent aid in tackling the worst recorded outbreak of the deadly Ebola virus, saying that without it her country will lose the fight against the disease.
The outbreak, which was first discovered in March, has now killed more than 2,400 people mostly in Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone as understaffed and poorly resourced West African health care systems have been overrun.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has warned that the epidemic is spreading exponentially in Liberia, where more than half of the deaths have been recorded. It has said that thousands are at risk of contagion in the coming weeks.