Senegal has become the latest country to seal its border with a west African neighbour to ward off the deadly Ebola virus, as the new UN pointman on the epidemic says preparations must be made for a possible flare-up.
Senegal's decision to close its land border with Guinea, announced by the interior ministry on Thursday, is part of intensifying efforts to contain the outbreak that has killed 1350 people since March in Guinea, Liberia, Nigeria and Sierra Leone.
David Nabarro, a British physician appointed by the United Nations to co-ordinate the global response to the crisis, arrived in west Africa on a mission to revitalise the health sectors of affected countries.
"We're either close to a plateau but then we'll drop or we're in a phase - an inflexion point - where it is going to increase, and I absolutely cannot tell," Nabarro said during a stopover en route to the Liberian capital Monrovia.
He said he was determined to "ensure that every piece of our apparatus is at its optimum so it could deal possibly with a flare-up if that's necessary".
Nabarro is also due to visit Freetown, Sierra Leone; Conakry, Guinea; and Abuja, Nigeria during the trip and then travel to Geneva and New York, headquarters of the World Health Organization and the UN respectively, to report on his findings.
Authorities have been hampered in their fight against Ebola by the deaths of several top health officials and numerous frontline doctors to the virus.
However, two American missionaries who contracted Ebola while treating patients in Liberia and were taken to the US for treatment, have left hospital after making a full recovery.
Kent Brantly, 33, and Nancy Writebol, 60, were given experimental drugs before being airlifted to a hospital in Atlanta where they were treated for the last three weeks.
Liberia, which has seen the biggest toll in this epidemic with 576 deaths, has witnessed chaotic scenes following a surge in cases.
The Red Cross said on Thursday the crematorium in Monrovia was struggling to deal with the dozens of bodies being brought in each day.
On Wednesday, troops used tear gas to disperse protesting crowds after President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf ordered a nightime curfew and quarantine zone in Monrovia's West Point slum and Dolo Town.
Guinea, where the outbreak first appeared earlier this year, has sent more than 100 doctors and volunteers to its borders with Sierra Leone and Liberia to monitor crossings.
As fears grow the outbreak will spread across Africa and beyond, DR Congo's Health Minister Felix Kabange Numbi said a haemorrhagic fever of unknown origin had killed 13 people in the country's northwest in the past two weeks.
"All 13 people who have died suffered from a fever, diarrhoea, vomiting and, in a terminal stage, of vomiting a black matter," he said.
The first victim was a pregnant woman and the 12 others - including five medics - died after coming into contact with her. About 80 people who had contact with the deceased are also under observation.
