Delegates to be screened for Ebola at US-Africa summit

US President Barack Obama has ordered compulsory screening of all the African delegates arriving in Washington for a summit for Ebola virus symptoms.

The issue of Ebola "is something that we take very seriously", Xinhua quoted Obama as saying Friday.

"The delegates from the African countries that have even a marginal risk of having been exposed in some fashion, are all going to be screened," Obama said.

Obama said that this outbreak was more aggressive than in the past, thus the procedures that the US has taken are "appropriate".

Delegates from African countries will be visiting Washington for the first ever US-Africa summit scheduled to take place next week.

The leaders of Liberia and Sierra Leone, two of the three countries affected, have already canceled their trip to Washington.

According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), the disease has killed 729 people and has affected 1,300 this year.