Worst-hit nations get key supplies

Vital supplies and resources to tackle Ebola are beginning to arrive in the three worst-hit West African countries, Ghana's President John Mahama said yesterday.
Mahama, who heads the regional bloc Ecowas, also told the BBC that treatment centres were being set up in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone. But he called for proper co-ordination between agencies to avoid duplication.
The outbreak has killed more than 4,500 people, almost all of them in those three countries. An estimated 70% of those infected have died.
Meanwhile, European Union foreign ministers met in Luxembourg to discuss how to strengthen their response to Ebola. Speaking on the sidelines, French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said he expected the meeting to appoint a co-ordinator to galvanise the EU's response to the epidemic.
European countries have committed more than 500m euros but the UK is pressing for that amount to be doubled.
The money is being sought to help reinforce overstretched healthcare systems in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea and to mitigate the damage Ebola is doing to their economies.
Meanwhile, the World Health Organisation insisted yesterday it would probe complaints that it had been slow to wake up to the scale of Ebola, but insisted the focus now must be on battling the epidemic, reports AFP.
Meanwhile, a new device similar to a simple pregnancy home-test could allow doctors to diagnose a patient with suspected Ebola in under 15 minutes, its French developers said yesterday.