Ebola Cases Could Zoom to 10,000 a Week, WHO Warns
— -- The Ebola epidemic could get dramatically worse with the rate of infection soaring to 10,000 new cases every week unless drastic measures are not taken within the next two months, the World Health Organization said today.
That staggering figure is approximately 10 times higher than the current rate of infection, but WHO Assistant Director General Dr. Bruce Aylward said that it could easily get that dramatic if steps are not taken now.
"A lot more people will die," Aylward said if more on-the-ground prevention measures are not put in place in the next 60 days.
Aylward said that there have been about 1,000 new cases per week over the past four weeks, according to the Associated Press.
The WHO's current plan is based largely around containing the spread, ideally by isolating 70 percent of the cases over the course of the next two months, which they believe will stop the outbreak.
There have been a handful of cases of people who contracted the disease and then traveled to different cities in Europe or America. There have been cases of Ebola in the U.S., Spain and Germany. An Ebola patient in Germany died today, health officials said.
The vast majority of the cases have been centralized in West Africa, specifically in Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone.