The number of people infected with the Ebola virus has now risen above 8,000 according to the latest figures from the World Health Organization (WHO). Nearly half of those people have died. CCTV America’s Nathan King reports.

Despite the global effort to contain the outbreak, the numbers just keep getting worse.

With more than 3,800 people now dead from Ebola, the statistics are particularly grim when looking at the rate of new cases over the past 21 days. In Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, there are nearly 2,800 new infections. That’s about one-third of all Ebola cases.

It’s an indication that the virus is spreading at a faster rate than previously believed. The World Health Organization says the lower number of cases reported in Liberia is the result of an overwhelmed health care system unable to cope with reporting the numbers.

As the latest figures were released, the leaders of those African nations most affected were in Washington for the International Monetary Fund meetings.

“The general international response has, up to this moment, been slower than the rate of transmission of the disease. This slower-than-the-virus response needs to change. I hereby seek the acceleration of the translation of commitment to physical facts on the ground. That is what is urgently needed now. Commitments on paper and commitments during meetings are good, but commitments as physical facts on the ground are best,” said Ernest Bai Koroma, president of Sierra Leone.

The most dire need in West Africa now is for doctors and nurses. More than 400 health care workers have become infected in this outbreak and at least 230 have died.

The other need is for hospital beds, according to the latest figures from the WHO. The most affected countries need of beds:

• Liberia: short 2,300 beds
• Sierra Leone: short 900 beds
• Guinea: short 50 beds

Without beds, hospitals must turn away patients who are forced to return to their communities.

Although only been a handful of Ebola cases have spread beyond West Africa, governments around the world have ramped up precautionary measures.

In Spain: A doctor who treated a nurse who contracted Ebola has been quarantined along with three others. Meanwhile, the nurse’s condition has deteriorated.

In the United States: A person with the virus is receiving a blood transfusion. Another Ebola patient, Thomas Eric Duncan, died on Wednesday. Temperature screenings and other measures are being adopted in the coming days.

In the U.K.: The nation also conducting screenings.

In France and Macedonia: Health officials are investigating cases of potential infection. In Macedonia, a hotel in the capital Skopje has been sealed off following the death of a British man. He died hours after checking with what authorities call “Ebola-like symptoms.”