The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warns that Ebola may infect 1.4 million people in Africa by mid-January 2015.
The latest outbreak of Ebola in Western Africa started in February this year. The World Health Organization (WHO) suggests that the outbreak is worse than expected. The CDC and WHO suggests that the disease may infect thousands of more people if not brought under control soon.
The disease has been reported in various West African countries such as Sierra Leone, Guinea, Nigeria, Liberia and Senegal. However, Sierra Leone and Liberia have the maximum number of Ebola cases. The deadly disease is estimated to have infected 21,000 people in Liberia and Sierra Leone alone by the end of September this year. If effective measures are not put in place to contain the disease, the number of infected may reach 1.4 million by Jan. 20, 2015.
"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," per the CDC.
Sierra Leone and Liberia together have a total population of about 10 million. If the CDC estimation is correct, then 1 in every 7 residents of these two countries will be infected by the fatal disease.
The CDC also suggests that the disease may decline and ultimately stop the spread. However, about 70 percent of the patients infected with Ebola should be admitted to Ebola Treatment Units (ETU). If ETU are in full capacity, then patients should be put in non-ETU facility where transmission of the disease is limited. The CDC also warns that a safe burial procedure of the dead, who were infected with the disease, may also help countries reduce the transmission of Ebola.
With the rapid increase in the disease, most of the ETUs are also running at full capacity. Many people are waiting to be treated for the disease in Sierra Leone but the numbers are not large. However, reports suggest that there is a big queue of people waiting to be treated in Liberia.
Health officials are working to expand the size of Ebola treatment centers, which can reduce the transmission of the disease by early admission and treatment of a patient.
CDC suggests that this is the worst Ebola outbreak in the history of Africa. About 6,000 people are already reported to have been infected with the disease and over 2,800 people have lost their lives to Ebola this year.
