The doctor who treated a man who flew to Nigeria and died of Ebola has now contracted the disease, authorities said.

Hundreds of troops have been deployed in Sierra Leone and Liberia under an emergency plan to fight the worst outbreak of the deadly ebola virus, which has killed more than 826 people across West Africa.

The British government's emergencies committee is to meet to discuss how to tackle the “new and emerging” threat of Ebola, Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond has said as fears mounted that the deadly virus could spread to the UK.

Welcome to your Wednesday morning briefing. Let us ensure you’re up to speed on what’s happening and are prepared for the day ahead.

No one knows just how many people Patrick Sawyer came into contact with the day he boarded a flight in Liberia, had a stopover in Ghana, changed planes in Togo, and then arrived in Nigeria, where authorities say he died days later from Ebola, one of the deadliest diseases known to man.

The Nigerian city of Lagos shut down and quarantined a hospital where a man died of Ebola in the first recorded case of the highly infectious disease in Africa’s most populous country.