On Tuesday, the World Health Organization (WHO) warned that as many as 10,000 new cases of Ebola per week may arrive within the next two months, which is ten times the current rate of infection. Officials also noted that the death rate of Ebola has risen to 70 percent of all cases. The last four weeks have seen an average of 1,000 new cases per week, WHO reported.
WHO Assistant Director General Bruce Aylward told reporters: “We anticipate the number of cases per week by that time [next couple months] to be somewhere between 5,000 and 10,000 per week. It could be higher, it could be lower, but somewhere in that ballpark.”
The leader of the Ebola Emergency Response Mission, Anthony Banbury, said neither Liberia, Sierra Leone, or Guinea, the three most Ebola stricken countries, are prepared to combat the spread of the deadly virus. Banbury said that only 4,300 beds will be available for Ebola patients by December 1, when the spread of infection is likely to increase exponentially, according to the current WHO projections.
Banbury added that there are only 50 burial teams in areas stricken with Ebola, but five-hundred is the required minimum in order to effective.
The Ebola Mission direction said, “We are fighting for people who are alive and healthy today, but will become infected by Ebola and die if we do not put in place the necessary emergency response.”
The United Nations body also warned that if Ebola is not contained within sixty days, the world will be facing an “unprecedented” situation. Banbury added, “We either stop Ebola now or we face an entirely unprecedented situation for which we do not have a plan.”
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