The Ivory Coast is the latest to place restrictions against Ebola-stricken neighbors Liberia and Guinea despite the World Health Organization's advice not to do so, Reuters reported.

Restrictions have been placed on travel from Nigeria and Sierra Leone as well, and the Philippines removed their peace-keeping troops in the area recently.

The WHO has said that travel restrictions will mean food and supply shortages to the area.

Gabon, Senegal, Cameroon and South Africa have also placed travel bans, BBC reported.

"Faced with new outbreak sites and the reactivation of old sites ... the Ivorian government decides to close its land borders with sister republics Guinea and Liberia," said a statement that was read on state-owned television late on Friday, Reuters reported.

The virus has killed more than 1,400 in the West African countries, and a spike in the number of cases has been seen in the Liberian county of Nimba, which borders the Ivory Coast.

Moses Massaquoi, the head of Ebola case management at Liberia's health ministry, told Reuters that 65 cases, including 25 confirmed patients, were reported.

"The number of cases in Nimba has spiked recently, and it is now an area of concern," Massaquoi told Reuters.

Also of concern to the WHO is the number of unreported cases and deaths so far.

Families are hiding infected loved ones and areas where medics cannot go mean that the true scale of the epidemic is unknown, the WHO said.

Zmapp, an experimental drug that had been given to doctors and cured some, is now exhausted, as the disease continues to spread, BBC reported.

Dr Keiji Fukuda, at the WHO, said, "We haven't seen an Ebola outbreak covering towns, rural areas so quickly and over such a wide area."

The WHO has said that instead of travel bans, there needs to be an influx of doctors and officials helping in the area, as well as more mobile laboratories, to help identify more possible cases and ensure the spread is controlled, the BBC reported.

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