The deadly Ebola virus can spread like a forest fire, U.S. health authorities said Monday, urging travelers to West Africa to take extra precautions amid the largest outbreak in history.

Since March, there have been 1,201 cases of Ebola and 672 deaths in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said.

South Korea on Monday reported its second case of foot-and-mouth disease in less than a week, triggering fearful memories of a devastating 2011 outbreak that forced the culling of millions of livestock.

A senior Agriculture Ministry official confirmed the second case in a pig farm in the southeast province of North Gyeongsang, but played down the threat.

One in almost 3,000 blood donors in England carry the hepatitis E virus (HEV) which can cause liver disease, said a study Monday that sparked a call for screening in Europe.

Published on World Hepatitis Day, a study in The Lancet medical journal said a systematic analysis of donated blood showed that 79 out of 225,000 donations were infected with a version of the virus, genotype 3, most prevalent in developed countries.

Alarm soared in west Africa Monday over the deadliest Ebola virus outbreak yet, with an American doctor and a missionary contracting the disease in Liberia and the death of the first victim from Sierra Leone's capital Freetown. 

Samaritan's Purse, a Christian charity, said that its physician Kent Brantly was in stable condition and had been isolated at the group's Ebola treatment center at the ELWA hospital in the Liberian capital Monrovia.

McDonald's outlets in Beijing and Shanghai have yanked their flagship burgers off the menu after a key U.S. supplier recalled products made by its Shanghai factory, which is alleged to have used expired meat.

Authorities in Shanghai just over a week ago shut a plant owned by privately-held OSI Group for mixing out-of-date meat with fresh product and later detained five officials from the OSI subsidiary which operated it, Shanghai Husi Food Co.

A U.S. doctor working with Ebola patients in Liberia has tested positive for the deadly virus, an aid organization said.

Samaritan's Purse issued a news release Saturday saying Dr. Kent Brantly was being treated at a hospital in Monrovia, the capital. Brantly had been serving as medical director for the aid organization's case management center there.

In Kinshasa's Gambela market shoppers can find insects for every occasion -- from unctuous white weevil larvae for fancy dinners to crispy caterpillars and snacky termites that stick in your teeth.

They may be an unbeatably cheap source of protein, but DR Congo's many insect connoisseurs insist they also have real gastronomic value. And the crowds pressing around the insect sellers at the market show that the Congolese can't get enough of them -- crushed, boiled or fried.

Nigeria was on alert against the possible spread of Ebola on Saturday, a day after the first confirmed death from the virus in Lagos, Africa's biggest city and the country's financial capital.

The health ministry said Friday that a 40-year-old Liberian man died at a private hospital in Lagos from the disease, which has now killed more than 650 people in four west African countries since January -- the deadliest outbreak in history.

U.S. officials are closely monitoring the outbreak of deadly Ebola virus which has now reached Nigeria, and is working with governments and aid groups to try to stop the spread.

"Our thoughts and prayers are with those fighting the virus," Will Stevens, spokesman for the State Department's Africa bureau, told Agence France Presse.

A commonly used morning-after pill is suitable for use by heavier women, the European Medicines Agency said Thursday after a review of the evidence sparked by the French manufacturer's declaration that the drugs didn't work in women weighing more than 80 kilograms (176 pounds).

Last November, HRA Pharma changed the labels on its morning-after pill Norlevo, marketed in 50 countries, saying it was ineffective in women over 80 kilograms after a study of levonorgestrel, one of the drug's active ingredients. Norlevo is not sold in the U.S. but another drug with the same main ingredient, Plan B One-Step, is widely available. The Food and Drug Administration said last year it was reviewing the issue to see if any label changes were needed.