The World Health Organization has declared a record outbreak of the deadly Ebola virus an international public health emergency. Liberia and Sierra Leone have deployed soldiers to blockade hard-hit areas, and Liberia’s foreign minister told the Thomson Reuters Foundation “the health care system is collapsing.” The tiny West African country of Benin has reported two possible Ebola cases, but nearly all infections have been in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea, with several in Nigeria. In the United States, Thomas Frieden, head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said he has activated the agency’s highest level of response.

Thomas Frieden: “The current outbreak is a crisis. It is unprecedented. And it’s unprecedented in five different ways. First, it’s the largest outbreak ever. In fact, at the current trend, within another few weeks, there will have been more cases in this outbreak than in all previous recognized outbreaks of Ebola put together.”