Speaking at the start of the G20 summit in the Australian city of Brisbane on Saturday, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon urged concrete actions to fight the epidemic.

"I would also like to stress the need to intensify the international response to the outbreak of Ebola in West Africa," Ban said, adding, “Transmission continues to outpace the response from the international community.”

He also warned of a food crisis as the secondary impact of the spread of the deadly virus, caused by disruption in farming in a number of Ebola-hit countries such as Sierra Leone and Liberia.

The remarks coincided with a joint petition by several aid organizations, including Amnesty International, Oxfam International, Plan International, Save the Children and WaterAid, in which they also urged the G20 leaders to pull together in the fight against Ebola.

“The national and global response needs to scale up rapidly, and do so in a way that respects, protects and fulfills all human rights of patients, health workers and the community at large,’’ said Steve Cockburn, Amnesty International’s deputy regional director for West and Central Africa. 

According to the latest statistics by the World Health Organization, the number of deaths recorded in the Ebola outbreak has increased to 5,160 with the number of infections standing at over 14,000.

Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone are the worst-hit countries, while Nigeria and the Democratic Republic of the Congo have also been affected by the virus.

Ebola is a form of hemorrhagic fever with symptoms such as diarrhea, vomiting, and bleeding.