WFP needs $70m to feed 1.3 million people in Ebola quarantine

The World Food Programme (WFP) needs to raise $70 million to feed 1.3 million people at risk from shortages in Ebola-quarantined areas in West Africa, with the agency’s resources already stretched by several major humanitarian crises, its regional director said.

WFP’s West Africa Director Denise Brown said the organisation was currently providing food for around 150,000 people in Ebola-striken nations but needed to rapidly scale that up as the worst ever epidemic of the virus advanced.

Senegal on Friday became the fifth country to confirm it had been touched by the outbreak that has infected more than 3,000 people – killing some 1,550 of them – since it was detected in March. The World Health Organization (WHO) said on Thursday the outbreak could infect a total of

WHO withdraws staff from Sierra Leone Ebola lab after doctor infected

The World Health Organization has withdrawn staff from a laboratory testing for Ebola at Kailahun in eastern Sierra Leone after one of its medical workers there was infected during the worst ever outbreak of the disease, a WHO spokesperson said.

“It’s a temporary measure to take care of the welfare of our remaining workers,” WHO spokesperson Christy Feig told Reuters. “After our assessment, they will return.”

The WHO has sent nearly