The death toll from the Ebola epidemic in West Africa has increased to almost 950, prompting most countries in the region to enforce states of emergency to contain its spread.

Widely-affected countries in the region, including Liberia, Sierra Leone, Nigeria and Guinea among others tightened control on Friday in their attempts to save lives.

The Liberian government deployed troops to Grand Cape Mount province, which is known to be one of the worst-affected areas, with bodies reportedly lying unburied in the streets.

Troops were deployed to restrict travel to the capital, Monrovia, where Liberian lawmakers convened an emergency meeting at the parliament to adopt a resolution calling for a 90-day state of emergency.

In Sierra Leone, two eastern towns of Kailahun and Kenema, were put under quarantine on Thursday, with most of the public places ordered shut.

Medics in Africa’s most populous country, Nigeria, called off a planned month-long industrial action amid concerns that the deadly virus was fast spreading in their country.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), Ebola has so far killed at least 932 people and infected more than 1,700 people since breaking out in West Africa earlier this year.

The WHO is expected to announce the outbreak a “public health emergency of international concern” at a closed-door emergency meeting in Geneva on Friday with possible global travel restrictions expected to be imposed, too.

As announced by the WHO, there is currently no known cure for Ebola, a form of hemorrhagic fever whose symptoms are diarrhea, vomiting, bleeding, and fever.

The virus spreads through direct contact with infected blood, feces or sweat. It can also be spread through sexual contact or the unprotected handling of contaminated corpses. Ebola was first discovered in the Democratic Republic of the Congo in 1976 in an outbreak that killed 280 people.