More than 6 million people are currently on lockdown in Sierra Leone in the hopes of bringing the spread of the Ebola virus in the country under control.

A three-day lockdown is in place in the country, while health workers attempt to identify and isolate Ebola cases.

In a televised address, the country's President Ernest Bai Koroma explained "these are extraordinary times and extraordinary times require extraordinary measures."

The virus has claimed the lives of more than 2,600 people in west Africa so far.

England's Chief Medical Officer Professor Dame Sally Davies has written a letter to the NHS urging British medics to volunteer in the region.

Prof Davies said doctors, nurses, paramedics and other medical professionals are needed to help fight the outbreak.

Earlier this week, Barack Obama said the Ebola epidemic in West Africa is "spiraling out of control".

The US President has made a commitment to send 3,000 American troops to help tackle the outbreak, which world health officials are now calling a crisis that's "unparalleled in modern times".

More than 20,000 people could become infected with the deadly Ebola virus, the World Health Organisation has claimed. Nearly 40% of the total number of reported cases have occurred within the past month.

The organisation also commented that the virus was still being spread in a "substantial number of localities" across the continent.