The World Health Organization (WHO) has identified six countries at risk for spread of the Ebola virus disease, adding that it is working with them to ensure that full surveillance, preparedness and response plans are in place.

“The following countries share land borders or major transportation connections with the affected countries and are therefore at risk for spread of the Ebola outbreak: Benin, Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire, Guinea-Bissau, Mali, and Senegal. WHO and a range of partners are working with countries to ensure that full Ebola surveillance, preparedness and response plans are in place in these countries,” WHO disclosed in a series of updates on the Ebola response roadmap issued at the weekend.

WHO’s Ebola Response Roadmap Situation Report 1 features up-to-date maps containing hotspots and hot zones, as well as epidemiological data showing how the outbreak is evolving over time. It also communicates what is known about the location of treatment facilities and laboratories.

It follows the release on Thursday last week of an Ebola response roadmap that aims to stop the transmission of Ebola virus disease (EVD) within six to nine months. The update noted that although the numbers of new cases reported in Guinea and Sierra Leone had been relatively stable, last week saw the highest weekly increase yet in Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia, highlighting “the urgent need to reinforce control measures and increase capacity for case management.

“There are serious problems with case management and infection prevention and control. The situation is worsening in Liberia and Sierra Leone,” WHO said.

The capacity to manage the current load of EVD cases is currently adequate in Guéckédou and in Conakry in Guinea, but in Liberia, “the capacity to cope with the increasing caseload remains dramatically low, especially in the capital, Monrovia, as well as in Bong and Nimba counties” and in Sierra Leone, there is inadequate capacity to accommodate patients in Freetown.

The latest official number of Ebola cases in Guinea, Liberia, Nigeria, and Sierra Leone stands at 3,069, with over 1,552 deaths, making this the largest Ebola outbreak ever recorded, WHO said.

Recently, WHO called on countries within Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) in to avoid taking actions that compromise the efforts to effectively respond to the ongoing Ebola outbreak in the sub-region.

David Nabarro, the UN system coordinator for Ebola, who just completed a visit of the affected countries, is expected to brief member states in New York today, along with WHO Director-General Margaret Chan and Deputy Secretary-General Jan Eliasson.

In addition, WHO announced that a meeting of global experts would take place in Geneva on Friday this week on potential Ebola therapies and vaccines, potential risks and benefits, uses and barriers for various options, as well as existing experimental projects.

As the outbreak continues to accelerate, more than 40 percent of total number of cases has occurred within the past 21 days, WHO disclosed, as most cases are concentrated in only a few localities.

The overall case fatality rate is 52 percent. A separate outbreak of Ebola virus disease, which is not related to the outbreak in West Africa, was laboratory-confirmed on 26 August by the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). A peep into 2014 outbreak reveals that nearly all cases of EVD are a result of human-to-human transmission.