The UK is sending 750 military personnel to Sierra Leone to help deal with the deadly Ebola outbreak, Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond has confirmed.
More than 3,000 people have died in the outbreak, mostly in West Africa.
In Sierra Leone the death toll is at least 678. Save the Children has said the rate of infection is rapidly increasing, with five new cases every hour.
There is no cure or vaccine for Ebola, which has so far infected more than 7,500 people in the worst outbreak yet.
British troops will help to establish treatment centres and a training academy, with the ship and helicopters providing support.
Mr Hammond, speaking in Washington with US Secretary of State John Kerry, said military and civilian teams were already in Sierra Leone, working on constructing five new Ebola treatment facilities with 700 beds.
He said that at a meeting of the government's Cobra emergency committee in London - which he joined via video link - the decision was made to deploy the RFA Argus to Freetown, Sierra Leone's capital, along with the three Merlin helicopters.
It is estimated the measures will help the country treat nearly 8,800 patients over six months.
Mr Hammond said: "This disease is an unprecedented threat that knows no borders. We have to get ahead of this disease. If we get ahead of it and rise to the challenge, we can contain it and beat it."
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