US forecasts more than 5,00,000 Ebola cases in West Africa: US
26 Sept 2014 4:14 AM IST
Global experts issued stark new warnings of the scale of West Africa’s Ebola outbreak on Tuesday, with the US government estimating between 550,000 and 1.4 million people might be infected in the region by January.
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said its projection was based on data from late August and did not take into account a planned US mission to fight the disease, so the upper end of the forecast was unlikely.
However, it followed research by experts from the World Health Organization (WHO) and Imperial College, which estimated that 20,000 people risked infection within six weeks — months earlier than previous forecasts. It warned that the disease might become a permanent feature of life in West Africa.
The worst Ebola outbreak on record has already killed over 2,800 people — more than the combined total of all previous outbreaks. The disease has marched across much of Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, killing dozens of health workers and crippling economies recovering from years of conflict.
Meanwhile, Sierra Leone said on Wednesday around 100 bodies and 200 patients had been collected from homes during its three-day lockdown to stem the deadly Ebola epidemic raging in West Africa.
Almost six million people across the country were confined indoors for 72 hours from Friday while 28,000 volunteers went door-to-door, giving out advice and identifying new suspected cases and deaths that had been kept from the authorities.
‘Over 92 bodies were discovered nationwide during the three-day lockdown of the country,’ Karamoh Kabbah, the deputy minister for political affairs, told a news conference in the capital Freetown. He said 77 of the bodies had been collected in the Western Area, a division including the city of 1.2 million and its immediate surroundings.
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said its projection was based on data from late August and did not take into account a planned US mission to fight the disease, so the upper end of the forecast was unlikely.
However, it followed research by experts from the World Health Organization (WHO) and Imperial College, which estimated that 20,000 people risked infection within six weeks — months earlier than previous forecasts. It warned that the disease might become a permanent feature of life in West Africa.
The worst Ebola outbreak on record has already killed over 2,800 people — more than the combined total of all previous outbreaks. The disease has marched across much of Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, killing dozens of health workers and crippling economies recovering from years of conflict.
Meanwhile, Sierra Leone said on Wednesday around 100 bodies and 200 patients had been collected from homes during its three-day lockdown to stem the deadly Ebola epidemic raging in West Africa.
Almost six million people across the country were confined indoors for 72 hours from Friday while 28,000 volunteers went door-to-door, giving out advice and identifying new suspected cases and deaths that had been kept from the authorities.
‘Over 92 bodies were discovered nationwide during the three-day lockdown of the country,’ Karamoh Kabbah, the deputy minister for political affairs, told a news conference in the capital Freetown. He said 77 of the bodies had been collected in the Western Area, a division including the city of 1.2 million and its immediate surroundings.
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