Fourth Ebola doctor dies in Sierra Leone

Civil society group WeCare SL and the Sierra Leone Medical and Dental Association both urged the government to step in.

President Ernest Bai Koroma also wrote to the WHO on Friday requesting evacuation, according to Reuters.

The WHO can only evacuate people it has deployed and the aim was to get them to treatment close to their families, said a WHO spokesman, adding that it had evacuated two people so far.

'We simply are not in a position to evacuate all health workers who get infected in those countries. What is needed is to have enough treatment in those countries so these health workers can have appropriate treatment, said Tarik Jasarevic in Geneva.

The United Nations agency is appealing to its U.N. partners as well as governments and non-governmental organizations to provide help, the spokesman said.

Also on Sunday, the Wall Street Journal reported that President Barack Obama is expected to detail on Tuesday a plan to boost U.S. involvement in combatting Ebola in West Africa. The strategy has four components, according to the Journal: control the outbreak at its source in West Africa; build competence in the region's public-health system, particularly in Liberia; bolster the capacity of local officials through enhanced training for health-care providers; and increase support from international organizations, such as the U.N. and the WHO.

He is expected to ask Congress for an additional $88 million to fund the plan, which he is expected to detail on a visit to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which has more than 100 experts in West Africa. It comes after Liberia’s president, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf appealed to Obama for aid, saying that without it her country would lose the fight against the disease.

The U.S. has already pledged armed forces to provide medical aid and security, and more than $100 million to combatting the outbreak.

Meanwhile, Sirleaf has fired 10 senior officials because they failed to heed a warning to return from overseas travel to help the government fight the epidemic.

The officials, who include six assistant ministers, two deputy ministers and two commissioners, were dismissed with immediate effect for being "out of the country without an excuse," according to a statement from the president's office. They were initially told to return to Liberia in August.

"These government officials showed insensitivity to our national tragedy and disregard for authority," said the statement released late on Saturday. It did not make clear what role the government expected the officials to play in the response to the crisis, or why they were out of the country.

The first cases of the current outbreak of Ebola were discovered in eastern Guinea in March. Since then, it has since killed more than 2,400 people, mostly in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea.

Ebola — a hemorrhagic fever — causes internal bleeding, severe diarrhea and vomiting. Although not airborne like the flu, a mere drop of the bodily fluids infected with the virus can cause fatal exposure. Regional burial practices, some of which involve contact with cadavers, have helped spread the disease.

The WHO has said it underestimated the severity of the outbreak — as did other aid groups — but that it had redoubled efforts, cooperation with local governments and appeals for money to make up for lost time.

At least 4,000 people have already been infected, with the mortality rate of the outbreak around 50 percent.

Al Jazeera and wire services