China ups its medics in Ebola-hit Sierra Leone to 174

China will send more medics to Ebola-hit Sierra Leone to help boost laboratory testing for the virus, raising the total number of Chinese medical experts there to 174, the UN said Tuesday.

"The most urgent immediate need in the Ebola response is for more medical staff," World Health Organization chief Margaret Chan said in a statement, hailing the Chinese commitment.

China has said it will dispatch a mobile laboratory team to Sierra Leone, where more than 500 people have died so far from Ebola.