Photo: AP

(VOVworld) – Approximately 4,500 people have died from the world's worst Ebola outbreak on record, and the situation in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone is deteriorating, the World Health Organization said on Wednesday. WHO said a total of 8,997 confirmed, probable and suspected cases of Ebola had been reported in seven countries as of Oct. 12, with the vast majority of these in the three West African nations. In Spain and the United States, a handful of healthcare workers are ill, while Senegal and Nigeria appear to have prevented further spread of the disease, the WHO said.

The United Nations Security Council issued a statement on Wednesday calling for the world to "dramatically expand the provision of resources and financial and material assistance" to West Africa.

Meanwhile, US President Barack Obama canceled a planned political trip on Thursday to Rhode island and New York to monitor the government's Ebola response. He also held an online conference with UK Prime Minister David Cameron, French President Francois Hollande, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, and Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi, urging them to fight the spread of the disease in hardest-hit West Africa.