CRI听力:WHO Calls for Global Response to Contain Ebola

The head of the World Health Organization has issued new warnings about the Ebola virus, noting over 40-percent of all the cases in West Africa have occurred within the past month.

Of the over 35-hundred people who have contracted the virus, more than half - 19-hundred - have died.

The WHO says the current Ebola outbreak is the worst seen in the last 40 years.

WHO Director-General Margaret Chan.

"It has become a global threat and we require urgent action and we need a well-coordinated mechanism bringing together the countries affected as well as development partners from other countries including USA."

The United Nations has been calling for funding of around 600-million U.S dollars to fight the outbreak.

The WHO has identified six countries at risk for spread of Ebola.

So far the current outbreak has been limited to West Africa.

However, separate cases of Ebola have also begun to emerge in the Democratic Republic of Congo in central Africa.