Nine months into an unprecedented Ebola epidemic in West Africa, the Atlanta-based Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) believes the current outbreak may infect up to 500,000 to 1.4 million people by the end of January 2015.
“CDC is working on a dynamic modeling tool that allows for recalculations of projected Ebola cases over time,” a CDC spokeswoman said.
Ebola, first identified in 1976, is a virus that causes high fevers, weakness and internal bleeding, with a mortality rate approaching 90 percent.
After consulting with officials from the CDC, President Barack Obama has announced a $763 million, military-led plan to dispatch 3,000 U.S. troops to the region, as well as health care and aid workers. American personnel will establish a new regional U.S. base in Liberia; portable hospitals, laboratories and other medical facilities; and increased training for first responders and other medical officials throughout West Africa.
“The world knows how to fight this disease,” Obama said at a news conference. “It’s not a mystery. We know the science. We know how to prevent it from spreading…But we have to act fast. We can’t dawdle on this one.”
Last week, Liberian Information Minister Lewis Brown issued a stark warning about the threat the illness poses to Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone. “People need to understand, what we are dealing with has the potential to collapse our three countries,” said Brown. In Sierra Leone, authorities credited a recent nation-wide three-day lockdown with limiting new cases.
