Ebola

[CharlesHarris]

http://apps.washingtonpost.com/g/page/na...-cdc/1337/

http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/h...ml?hpid=z3

The number of Ebola cases in West Africa could reach 1.4 million by the end of January if trends continue without an immediate and massive scale-up in response, according to a new estimate by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The report released Tuesday is a tool the agency has developed to help with efforts to slow transmission of the epidemic and estimate the potential number of future cases. Researchers say the total number of cases is vastly underreported by a factor of 2.5 in Sierra Leone and Liberia, two of the three hardest-hit countries. Using this correction factor, researchers estimate that approximately 21,000 total cases will have occurred in Liberia and Sierra Leone by Sept. 30. Reported cases in those two countries are doubling approximately every 20 days, researchers said.

“Extrapolating trends to January 20, 2015, without additional interventions or changes in community behavior,” such as much-improved safe burial practices, the researchers estimate that the number of Ebola cases in Liberia and Sierra Leone could be between approximately 550,000 to 1.4 million.

“The findings in this report underscore the substantial public health challenges posed by the predicted number of future Ebola cases,” the researchers wrote. “If conditions continue without scale-up of interventions, cases will continue to double approximately every 20 days, and the number of cases in West Africa will rapidly reach extraordinary levels.”

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/natio.../16072019/

If the world doesn't get the Ebola outbreak in West Africa under control quickly, the disease could become a permanent fixture in the region, spreading as routinely as malaria or the flu, the World Health Organization warns today in a new report.

Although some experts dispute that dire scenario, many agree that the virus could circulate for years if it's not stopped soon. The notion that Ebola could become endemic in West Africa -- spreading routinely, rather than in sporadic outbreaks -- is "a prospect that has never before been contemplated," according to the report, published online in the New England Journal of Medicine.