World leaders declared the Ebola outbreak the worst global health emergency in years on Wednesday as governments stepped up measures to stop the virus spreading from West Africa.
As it emerged that the second health care worker to be infected in the United States had taken a domestic flight the day before she was quarantined, a new urgency gripped national governments.
US President Barack Obama called his counterparts from Britain, France, Germany and Italy, and the UN Security Council issued a stark warning that the outbreak was spreading out of control, with nearly 4,500 lives lost already.
"Each leader set out what they are doing to help the countries affected and then discussions focused on how to improve coordination," British Prime Minister David Cameron's office said.
"Leaders agreed that this was the most serious international public health emergency in recent years and that the international community needed to do much more and faster."Obama urged Cameron, Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel, France's President Francois Hollande and Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi to "make a more significant" contribution to the fight.European Union health ministers are to meet in Brussels on Thursday, with member states under pressure to follow Washington in sending troops to West Africa to help fight the virus.
Separately, the United Nations Security Council urged the international community to "accelerate and dramatically expand" aid to the West African countries battling the epidemic.
In a unanimously adopted statement, the 15-member body warned that the world's response "has failed to date to adequately address the magnitude of the outbreak and its effects."
- More health checks -
France announced that it would begin carrying out health checks at airports for travellers arriving from the West African nations that have borne the brunt of the outbreak.
The worst Ebola outbreak on record has so far claimed 4,493 lives, out of 8,997 recorded cases, according to the World Health Organization.
Seven countries have been affected, but the majority of cases are in three West African states -- Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea.Meanwhile, Dubai health authorities quarantined a traveller from Liberia who showed some of the symptoms of the fever.
In Liberia, the country worst hit by the crisis, hard-pressed doctors and nurses returned to work after a two-day strike to demand hazard pay for dealing with Ebola patients.
The United States pledged $5 million to help pay the workers, many of whom have caught the virus from their patients, bringing its total commitment to the country to $142 million, Liberian officials said.
The hemorrhagic virus has ravaged Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone since the start of the year, and the UN health agency has warned there could be a steep rise in infections in coming months.
Airports in Britain, Canada and the United States have introduced stepped-up screening of travelers arriving from West Africa.
- Second US infection -
Meanwhile, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued an alert for all passengers who traveled on an October 13 flight from Cleveland, Ohio to Texas.
Authorities want to interview 132 people who flew on a plane with an Ebola-infected nurse -- the second American to be infected within the United States -- who had not yet become symptomatic.CDC chief Thomas Frieden said the case was "very concerning" and warned that health workers who have been exposed to Ebola patients should not use public transport.
"She was in a group of individuals known to have exposure to Ebola. She should not have traveled on a commercial airline," he said.
"The investigation is identifying additional healthcare workers who will be very closely monitored and we are planning for the possibility of additional cases in the coming days."
The woman was isolated at Texas Health Presbyterian hospital in Dallas late Tuesday with a fever, and the crew on the flight said she had not been symptomatic when she flew a day earlier.
Ebola is only transmitted by contact with the bodily fluids of an infected person who has fever, diarrhea or vomiting.
The nurse was the second person infected with Ebola on US soil and, like the first, was a hospital caregiver for a Liberian Ebola patient, Thomas Eric Duncan, who died in Dallas on October 8.The first such case was announced Sunday, that of 26-year-old nurse Nina Pham, who is currently in good condition in hospital.
The CDC is monitoring 75 more health care workers at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital for signs of Ebola.
"It may get worse before it gets better, but it will get better," Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings told a press conference.
Anthony Fauci, head of the National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases, called the second infection "unacceptable."
In Spain, 44-year-old nurse Teresa Romero -- thought to have caught Ebola while treating an elderly missionary infected in Sierra Leone -- was said to be in stable condition.In Germany, a 56-year-old Sudanese doctor who had worked as a UN volunteer in Liberia died of Ebola late Monday.
"Ebola got a head start on us," Anthony Banbury, head of the UN Mission for Ebola Emergency Response, told the UN Security Council by remote link from Ghana on Tuesday.
"It is far ahead of us, it is running faster than us, and it is winning the race," he said. "We either stop Ebola now or we face an entirely unprecedented situation for which we do not have a plan."
The World Health Organization also warned that the infection rate could reach 10,000 a week in a worst-case scenario by the first week of December.