550K Ebola Cases Feared by CDC This Year

The Ebola virus that has been spreading across West Africa since winter could infect hundreds of thousands more by the end of January, according to a report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that’s due out next week. The worst-case scenario puts the number of infections at 550,000 by January, almost double previous high-end estimates. “This is a disease outbreak that is advancing in an exponential fashion,” said David Nabarro, the United Nations’ system coordinator for Ebola. “I estimate that to get ahead of the outbreak, the level of response needs to be about 20 times greater than it is at the moment.”