SEOUL - South Korea's foreign ministry said Wednesday that the country will send its first team of medical workers, composed of four doctors and six nurses, next month to assist global efforts to contain the spread of the deadly virus.

The first batch of medical workers plans to leave South Korea on Dec 13 for Worcestor, north of London, where the four doctors and six nurses will receive safety education, according to the South Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

They will leave for Sierra Leone on Dec 21 to receive an on- the-job training for a week at an Ebola clinic being built by Britain in Goderich, near the capital of Freetown, before starting medical treatment there from Dec 29.

South Korea plans to send two more medical teams composed of four doctors and six nurses each, the ministry said.

Sierra Leone is one of the three hardest-hit countries, besides Liberia and Guinea, in the Ebola outbreak in West Africa. To date, the World Health Organization (WHO) has reported more than 15,000 Ebola cases in eight countries since the outbreak began, with more than 5,000 reported deaths.