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A top UN official raised concerns of Ebola mutating and going airborne, terming it nightmarish.

Telegraph reported Anthony Banbury, Secretary General's Special Representative saying that delayed response of international community has allowed Ebola to linger with chances of mutation.

"The longer it moves around in human hosts in the virulent melting pot that is West Africa, the more chances increase that it could mutate. It is a nightmare scenario [that it could become airborne], and unlikely, but it can't be ruled out. We have never seen anything like it. In a career working in these kinds of situations, wars, natural disasters - I have never seen anything as serious or dangerous or high risk as this one. I've heard other people saying this as well, senior figures who are not being alarmist. Behind closed doors, they are saying they have never seen anything as bad," he said.

Banbury said the international community's response to tackling Ebola was delayed, giving the virus a head start in causing illness. It was however not too late and the UN is geared up to tackle the outbreak he said, adding that the resources required are being made available. The UN is embarking on a 90-day mission to curtail the virus's spread. The time window is seen as a critical opportunity for healthcare workers as the risks of the virus fanning out of West Africa are very high.  

However other experts feel that worries are unfounded as no past instances of a virus like Ebola mutating to go airborne, exist. Changing mode of transmissions among viruses, is not common they said, while citing examples of HIV and Hepatitis which like Ebola continue to spread through body fluids despite being around for decades.

In other Ebola related news, a man in Dallas who was tested positive for the deadly virus reportedly had contact with a victim in Liberia. Thomas Duncan who flew to the US last month accompanied a 18-year old victim to an Ebola ward in Liberia shortly before her death. After news broke of his infection, fear gripped Dallas, even as CDC says about a 100 people are being scanned for exposure, WSJ reports.