British troops are to be deployed to Sierra Leone on a mission to help fight the spiralling ebola outbreak in West Africa.
Up to 700 soldiers from the Royal Scots Borders 1st Battalion, based in Holywood, Northern Ireland, will eventually be stationed near the capital Freetown.
Around 40 troops have already arrived in the country, said the Ministry of Defence, and more are flying out soon.
Confirmation of the deployment came as newly released figures from the World Health Organisation said the total number of people killed in the current outbreak had risen to 3,879 as of October 5.
The WHO said Sierra Leone and Liberia, the two worst-hit countries, only had a fraction of bed spaces they needed.
Both the British Foreign Secretary, Philip Hammond, and his US counterpart John Kerry are urging countries to play a role in tackling the crisis.
Speaking about the British Army's response, commanding officer Lieutenant Colonel Matt Munro said: "This is a challenge unlike any, but the point is that we are very well prepared."
He said soldiers were at a very low risk of contracting the virus.
The Royal Fleet Auxiliary ship Argus will also sail and moor off the country's coast and could be used to evacuate any British casualties if needed.
Three Merlin helicopters will be onboard to fly doctors and personnel to hard-to-reach areas.
Mr Hammond told Sky News: "We have really a matter of weeks to get on top of this, to get ahead of the curve of disease replication, by putting new and appropriate assets into Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea so that we can contain it and get on top of the outbreak.
"The challenge is there is a need to move at speed, and it is not just about money, it's about providing the necessary qualified personnel to staff the beds that we're building, for example, in Sierra Leone."
Four major hospitals in the UK - London's Royal Free Hospital and three others in Sheffield, Newcastle and Liverpool, are on standby to deal with any outbreak in the UK.
The hospitals already have infectious disease units and have been lined up to provide "surge capacity" if the virus spreads to Britain.
Experts have said the UK is the third most likely country outside Africa to report an ebola case, with the WHO warning that sporadic cases in Europe are "unavoidable".
Texas ebola patient Thomas Eric Duncan - the first to be diagnosed with the disease in the US - died at the Texas Presbyterian Hospital on Wednesday, officials said.
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