With an unprecedented Ebola epidemic affecting several African countries, the health ministers of 11 African nations on Thursday agreed on a joint strategy to try to stop the spread, CNN reported.

World Health Organization (WHO) officials met with the health leaders and the team will establish a regional control center in Guinea to better coordinate action.

"It's time for concrete action to put an end to the suffering and deaths caused by Ebola virus disease an prevent its further spread," Luis Gomes Sambo, WHO regional director for Africa, told CNN.

According to WHO, there have been 759 cases and 467 deaths in Guinea, Sierra Leone or Liberia.

Health officials from those countries met with officials from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea-Bissau, Ivory Coast, Mali, Senegal and Uganda in a two-day summit at which they devised a plan.

That plan calls for better surveillance and reporting of Ebola cases, the need for community leaders and politicians to improve awareness, and better communication between nations.

WHO has said that "drastic action" is needed to prevent the spread of the virus, which has been known to kill up to 90 percent of those infected. Currently, there is no vaccine and no cure, according to Al-Jazeera.

"If we do not provide the support to stop the transmission ... other countries will get infected as well, it will spread more in the countries that already have (the virus), and it will require more resources," Liberia's Deputy Health Minister Bernice Dahn said, Al-Jazeera reported.

Sambo said that $10 million is needed immediately to address the issue for the next six months.

Ebola symptoms start with headache, fever and fatigue, similar to other, non-deadly illnesses. Then comes significant diarrhea and vomiting, while the virus reduces the body's ability to clot.

Those symptoms can appear anywhere from two days to three weeks after getting the virus and can kill within 10 days, CNN reported.

The virus, however, isn't extremely contagious. An infected person isn't contagious until they are showing symptoms. The disease is transmitted by contact with blood and bodily fluids of an infected person.

Ebola was discovered in 1970 by Peter Piot, who called this outbreak "unprecedented."

"One, (this is) the first time in West Africa that we have such an outbreak," he told CNN. "Secondly, it is the first time that three countries are involved. And thirdly, it's the first time that we have outbreaks in capitals, in capital cities."