ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast, Aug. 11 (UPI) -- Ivory Coast has banned all passenger flights from Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone -- the three countries most affected by the outbreak of the Ebola virus.
The ban is an attempt to stop the spread of the deadly virus that has killed 961 people since the outbreak began earlier this year.
Saudi Arabia issued a similar travel ban in response to the Ebola outbreak while some airlines, including British Airways, have also suspended flights to and from the affected countries.
On Monday, the World Health Organization reiterated that "The Ebola virus is highly contagious, but is not airborne."
The Ebola virus is spread by "close contact with the bodily fluids of an infected person ... As symptoms worsen, the ability to transmit the virus increases. As a result, patients are usually most likely to infect others at a severe stage of the disease, when they are visible, and physically, too ill to travel."
