Ebola Death Toll Passes 3K

The number of deaths linked to Ebola has now passed 3,000, according to a WHO toll published today. In just two days, more than 150 people died in Liberia, the hardest-hit country. And WHO has warned that even those high tolls might be an underestimate as patients fear going to hospitals or are turned away from overcrowded facilities. No vaccine has yet been proved to be safe or effective in humans, says a WHO official. But thousands of doses of experimental vaccines should be available in the coming months and could eventually be given to health care workers and other people at high risk of the deadly disease, the organization says.

Meanwhile, Liberian immigrants living in the United States without a visa won't be sent back to the epicenter of Ebola crisis in West Africa for at least another two years, the Obama administration said today. President Obama granted Liberian immigrants a legal protection called a "deferred enforced departure." The decision extends deportation protections for Liberian immigrants that have been in place for more than a decade. The government first granted temporary protective status to Liberians during that country's bloody civil war; that protection expired in 2007. President Bush then approved deferred enforced departure for the community. Obama later approved the same protection and renewed it again today for two more years. (More Ebola stories.)