Liberia's government has ordered that all bodies of people killed by the Ebola virus must be cremated.

The decision follows the refusal of some communities to allow the burial of Ebola victims on their land.

Ebola has claimed 728 lives in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone this year, the worst-ever outbreak.

It spreads by contact with infected blood and bodily fluids - and touching the body of someone who has died of Ebola is particularly dangerous.

The BBC's Jonathan Paye-Layleh in the capital, Monrovia, says cremation is not part of the culture in Liberia and health experts say burial ceremonies have played a role in the transmission of the virus.

Meanwhile, the US is planning to send at least 50 public health experts within the next 30 days to help contain the outbreak.

"We do know how to stop Ebola," said Thomas Frieden, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, about the new US measures in an interview with ABC's This Week.

"It's old-fashioned plain and simple public health: Find the patients, make sure they get treated, find their contacts, track them, educate people, do infection control in hospitals."

There is no cure or vaccine for Ebola - but patients have a better chance of survival if they receive early treatment.

The current outbreak is killing between 50% and 60% of people infected.

Initial flu-like symptoms can lead to external haemorrhaging from areas like eyes and gums, and internal bleeding which can lead to organ failure.

Hand-washing warning

Liberia's Information Minister Lewis Brown made the announcement on state radio about cremations after an incident over the weekend when a community refused to allow the burial of some bodies, most of them Ebola victims.

Thirty-four bodies were buried but the protests meant 12 were left out in the open for a day until it was decided to cremate them on Sunday, Deputy Health Minister Tolbert Nyenswah told the BBC.

Mr Brown also warned that businesses that did not install hand-washing facilities would be shut down.

Our reporter says the call for hand washing as part of the preventive measures has led to a boom in the sale of tap buckets in Monrovia.

On Friday, Margaret Chan, head of the World Health Organization, met the leaders of Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone to launch a new $100m (£59m) Ebola response plan.

In Sierra Leone, the army is in the process of deploying to the east of the country to help health officials quarantine areas affected by Ebola.

Code-named Operation Octopus, the deployment, which includes military doctors and nurses, began on Sunday and is expected to take three days.