Evidence that Ebola outbreak \\\'vastly\\\' underestimated: WHO

The UN's health agency said that the scale of the Ebola outbreak in West Africa has been vastly underestimated and ‘extraordinary measures’ were needed to contain the disease. As the official toll climbed to 1,069, according to World Health Organisation, the United States ordered the evacuation of diplomats' families from Sierra Leone, one of the three countries at the epicentre of the outbreak along with Liberia and Guinea. The Geneva-based WHO said in a statement it was coordinating ‘a massive scaling up of the international response’, in a bid to tackle the worst epidemic of haemorrhagic fever-causing virus since its discovery four decades ago. ‘Staff at the outbreak sites see evidence that the numbers of reported cases and deaths vastly underestimate the magnitude of the outbreak,’ it said. ‘The outbreak is expected to continue for some time. WHO's operational response plan extends over the next several months,’ the organisation warned, according to AFP.