According to WHO, funds are urgently needed to support Uganda's National Task Force for the Control of Viral Haemorrhagic Fevers and the international response to the outbreak. Specifically, the agency is seeking support to help control the epidemic, manage patients suffering from Ebola and educate the public about the risks attached to Ebola.

Funds are also needed to provide operational support - communications, transportation and logistics - to field teams of the Global Outbreak Alert and Response Network working in Gulu district. The Network is a technical partnership of institutions pooling their resources to ensure early detection of and response to outbreaks of potential importance.

"Past experience in Ebola outbreaks clearly demonstrates that basic prevention and preparedness measures that are immediately put in place can play a very large part in bringing an epidemic under control," WHO said in a statement.