More than 10,000 people have died in the largest ever outbreak of the virus.

 

But a study in the journal Science suggests there could be even more deaths from other diseases because of the devastating impact on the countries' vaccination programmes.

 

Experts said an increase in such infections was "likely".

 

There have been 24,350 cases of Ebola in Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone.

 

Many healthcare facilities closed and the fear of Ebola meant people did not show up at those that remained.

 

Disrupted

 

It has had a knock-on effect on immunisation campaigns for measles, polio, TB and other diseases.

 

An international team of scientists tried to estimate the impact on measles protection.

 

They ran detailed models assuming 75% of vaccination programmes had been disrupted.

 

The scientists estimated that 20,000 more people were becoming susceptible to measles every month.

 

At the start of the outbreak they said there were 778,000 unvaccinated children and the total would increase to 1,129,000 after 18 months of the outbreak.