The latest figures by the World Health Organization show that deaths from Ebola have risen to 4,033 with the majority of these – 4,024 – noted in Libera (2,316), Sierra Leone (930) and Guinea (778). There have been eight deaths in Nigeria and 1 in the United States. 8,399 cases had been confirmed in seven countries by the end of October 8.

Most countries are worried about the disease and are have contingency plans to help them prevent, detect and be ready to treat it:

Sierra Leone

Health officials fighting against the Ebola epidemic in Sierra Leone approved a scheme to help patients in their own homes as a result of not having enough treatment beds to meet the overwhelming demand. The shift in treatment is the result of health officials’ failure to cope with the surging needs of Ebola patients.

The new treatment procedure increases the inflicted household’s risk as it now requires families to take care of their ailing members because there are only 304 beds for Ebola sufferers in Sierra Leone whereas an extra 1,148 are needed, according to the World Health Organization.

The U.K. has pledged to get 400 beds to urban areas around Sierra Leone last month, however for many patients this may be too late.

Liberia

Sierra Leone’s neighboring Liberia is also facing a shortage of beds. The government of the United States pledged that it would ship 400,000 kits with gloves and disinfectants to the area, however healthcare workers know that home kits are no substitute for getting people to a treatment facility.

Spain

Spanish healthworker Teresa Romero Ramos became the first person to become infected with the Ebola virus outside of West Africa after she treated two Spanish missionaries from an affected region.

The nurse remained undiagnosed for days after contracting the virus even though she had reported her symptoms. “Our first priority is Teresa Romero – she is the only person that we know has the illness,” said Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy who believes that it is highly unlikely that the disease would spread in Spain.

In an effort to ensure that the disease doesn’t spread, fourteen people have been quarantined, including four health workers who treated Ms. Romero Ramos and two hairdressers who had given her a beauty treatment before she was diagnosed. Even her dog was euthanized.

Concerns about the lack of training and safety have caused some staff members at Madrid’s Carlos III hospital to refuse attending Ebola cases.

Cyprus

A suspected case of Ebola in the Turkish-occupied part of Cyprus has worried Cypriot authorities concerned about the island’s safety. The Turkish citizen who has been hospitalized had been working in Nigeria. He has been quarantined and blood tests to confirm whether he has the virus are expected.

Greece

The Greek Ministry of Health has assured Greece’s preparedness for dealing with the deadly disease with a wing at the Amalia Fleming Hospital on standby and medical specialists dispatched to the country’s main entrance points. It was decided that questionnaires would be given to visitors traveling to Greece from high-risk countries after a meeting between Health Ministry officials, experts from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (KEELPNO) and the National Health Operations Center (EKEPY) held on Friday to discuss Greece’s strategy for preventing and dealing with the virus.

There are posters currently displayed at Greek airports giving information about the Ebola virus in both Greek and English.

The Health Ministry’s General Secretary Christina Papanikolaou told Skai television that there is no reason to be worried in Greece if we are well prepared, however Greeks are concerned about travelers entering the country, especially illegal immigrants who are smuggled by traffickers into the country without being checked for infectious diseases. Many of them come to Greece from countries hard-hit by Ebola.

United States

New York’s JFK Airport is the first out of five U.S. airports to begin screenings of passengers from West African countries affected by Ebola in efforts to prevent the spread of the outbreak. The airport has recruited teams with thermal guns to take the temperatures of travelers from Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea.

These new measures come after the death of Thomas Eric Duncan in Texas on Wednesday. He had been diagnosed with the disease in Dallas after returning to the U.S. from Liberia.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the airport screening was part of a wider strategy aimed at protecting the American public.

The United Kingdom

Extra screening for the Ebola virus is already taking place at Heathrow and Gatwick airports as well as at Eurostar rail terminals. A national drill to test the U.K.’s readiness to deal with the virus is taking place on Saturday.

ISIS

Terrorism experts have warned that Islamic State Militants could turn themselves into Ebola suicide “bombers” against the Western world. All that they will need to do is simply dispatch individuals to Ebola-infected regions and then spread the virus through the world’s air routes.

A number of intelligence experts, including Amanda Teckman, who authored a paper on Ebola’s bioterrorist threat told Forbes that a bioterrorist attack is “a global health and security concern and should not be ignored.”

A Foreign Policy report says that documents with instructions on “how to develop biological weapons and how to weaponize the bubonic plague from infected animals” had been seized from a Tunisian IS militant known as Mohammad S.

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