MONROVIA: The head of the US Agency for International Development said Tuesday poor understanding of Ebola was undermining the fight against the epidemic, pointing out that the fever is harder to get than malaria.

USAID director Jeremy Konyndyk, in Liberia to support the fight against an epidemic which has claimed the lives of almost 1,500 west Africans, told AFP educating people on how to protect themselves was the best way to beat Ebola.

“Compared to something like malaria, it is much harder a disease to get. But obviously must worse when you do get it,” he said.

“So helping people to better understand how they can protect themselves, how they can avoid Ebola, is a critical piece of controlling this outbreak.”

Liberia's president has fired all Cabinet ministers and other top officials who defied her order to return to the country as it struggles with an unprecedented Ebola outbreak. A statement from Ellen Johnson Sirleaf's office late Monday did not say how many officials or which ones had been fired. The order to return and remain in Liberia came a few weeks ago as part of a state of emergency.

Liberia has been hardest hit and has the most severe measures, including sealing off an entire neighborhood of the capital.

The World Health Organization says 240 health care workers have been infected with Ebola, half of whom died.

The epidemic has sent shock waves throughout the world since it emerged in southern Guinea at the start of the year, grounding flights to the afflicted countries and damaging African economies.

But the death toll since it was discovered in 1976 is under 3,000 while, at conservative estimates, malaria is estimated to kill that many people every two days, the vast majority of them African children aged under five.

Ebola transmission can be prevented by avoiding contact with an infected person’s bodily fluids.