The World Health Organization (WHO) elevated the status of the Ebola outbreak in West Africa to an international health emergency on Friday.

The international health body explained that the deadly virus took the lives of almost 1,000 people across West Africa and there are serious possibilities of an global spread of the disease.

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After conducting a two-day meeting on the Ebola crisis, WHO called on international organizations to cooperate on efforts to stop the spread of the deadly virus, Reuters said.

Guinea, Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Nigeria are the states affected by the outbreak. Although the WHO recommends declaring a national emergency on all four states, it also said there is no need to ban international travel and trade.

WHO health security chief Keiji Fukuda emphasized that taking the right measures in dealing with Ebola patients should be enough to stop the spread of the virus. He explained that it is not a "mysterious" and airborne virus but instead "an infectious disease that can be contained."

The recent Ebola epidemic is the most severe so far in the 40 years that the virus is known to mankind, the WHO said. The Geneva-based health agency attributed the outbreak to the weak health systems and scarce resources in the affected countries.

Some communities are still grappling with misconceptions about Ebola, including its transmission and medical management. These challenges also added to the problem.

Most of the Ebola cases are confined in the remote region near the border of Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone. However, alarm over the disease heightened last month when an American citizen who flew from Liberia died in Nigeria.

Doctors gave an experimental drug to two U.S. charity personnel infected by the virus in Liberia and specialists urged the WHO to make the same drugs available to Africans. The international health agency, in turn, requested experts on medical ethics to look into this option.

TagsWHO, West Africa, Guinea, Sierra Leone, Nigeria, Reuters, Geneva, Keiji Fukuda, U.S., Africans, American