WASHINGTON: World leaders declared the Ebola outbreak the worst global health emergency in years, as President Barack Obama vowed a "much more aggressive" response to the spreading virus, which has killed nearly 4,500 people.
US President Barack Obama on Wednesday called on the world to do more, while insisting his own country would be "much more aggressive" in its response, after a second Texas hospital worker tested positive.
The fact that the newly infected Dallas caregiver took a domestic flight a day before she was quarantined magnified global fears about air travel -- concerns Obama tried to tamp down after national crisis talks.
"We are going to have to make sure that we do not lose sight of the importance of the international response to what is taking place in West Africa," Obama said after meeting with his top advisors.
Earlier, Obama called his counterparts from Britain, France, Germany and Italy to better coordinate their plan to combat the outbreak.
"Leaders agreed that this was the most serious international public health emergency in recent years and that the international community needed to do much more and faster," British Prime Minister David Cameron's office said.
Obama urged Cameron, Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel, France's President Francois Hollande and Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi to "make a more significant" contribution to the fight, the White House said.
European Union health ministers are to meet in Brussels on Thursday, with member states under pressure to follow Washington in sending troops to West Africa to help fight the virus.
The United Nations Security Council urged the international community to "accelerate and dramatically expand" aid to the West African countries battling the epidemic.
In a unanimously adopted statement, the 15-member body warned that the world's response "has failed to date to adequately address the magnitude of the outbreak and its effects."
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