The World Health Organisation (WHO) declared an international public health emergency on Friday to further combat the deadly Ebola virus sweeping through West Africa. 

The classification calls for "international solidarity" between countries devastated by the virus, and those unaffected. 

The Ebola outbreak began in Guinea in February, and quickly spread to Liberia and Sierra Leone. There are also confirmed infections in Nigeria, Spain, and the United States.

WHO Chief Dr Margaret Chan said that the public health emergency classification will provide increased resources to the countries struggling to contain the virus' spread, Fox News reports. 

"Countries affected to date simply do not have the capacity to manage an outbreak of this size and complexity on their own, " she said at a Geneva news conference. 

"I urge the international community to provide this support on the most urgent basis possible."

However, Doctors Without Borders Director of Operations, Dr Bart Janssens expressed little faith in the effect of the WHO declaration. 

"Statements won't save lives," he said.

"For weeks, (we) have been repeating that a massive medical, epidemiological and public health response is desperately needed. ... Lives are being lost because the response is too slow."

Dr David Heymann, a former WHO executive who directed the organisation's response to SARS, echoed that sentiment. 

"I don't know what the advantage is of declaring an international emergency," he admitted. Dr Heymann is now a London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine professor.

"This could bring in more foreign aid but we don't know that yet," he said. 

US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease Virology Chief Dr Heinz Feldmann hoped the classification would bring more aid to the affected countries.

"The situation is very critical and different from what we've seen before," he explained.  "There are so many locations with transmission popping up and we just need more people on the ground."

The latest WHO report attributes 932 deaths to the Ebola virus.