Ebola outbreak can be ended in 2015: UN's Ban Ki-moon

The deadly Ebola outbreak can be ended "by the middle of next year" if the world speeds up its response, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has said.

Ban Ki-moon (2nd left) stressed that the world "must get to zero (Ebola) cases"

But he warned that although the rate of new cases was slowing in parts of West Africa, Mali - where six people have died - was now of deep concern.

And the head of the UN Ebola mission, Anthony Banbury, said the world was "far away" from beating the virus.

Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia have been worst hit by the Ebola outbreak.

More than 5,400 people have died in those three countries, along with a handful of others in Nigeria, Mali, Spain and the US.

In a separate development, Liberian police said all the country's beaches would be closed from 29 November until Liberia was declared free of Ebola.

In a statement, the police said anyone using the beach in violation of the order would be prosecuted.

Task force

Speaking at a meeting in Washington with officials from the World Health Organization (WHO), World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Mr Ban said: "If we continue to accelerate our response, we can contain and end the outbreak by the middle of next year."

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