A World Health Organization official has warned there could be up to 10,000 new cases of Ebola per week over the next two months and that the death rate has now increased to 70 per cent
WHO assistant director-general Dr. Bruce Aylward gave the figure during a news conference Tuesday.
He said that the 70 per cent death rate was 'a high mortality disease' in any circumstance and that the U.N. health agency was still focused on trying to get sick people isolated and provide treatment as early as possible.
Dr Aylward says if the response to the Ebola crisis isn't stepped up within 60 days, 'a lot more people will die' and there will be a huge need on the ground to deal with the spiraling numbers of cases.
He said WHO estimated there could up to 10,000 cases per week in two months.

Aylward said for the last four weeks, there have been about 1,000 new cases per week, though that figure includes suspected, confirmed and probable cases.
He said WHO is aiming to have 70 per cent of cases isolated within two months to reverse the outbreak.
WHO increased its Ebola death toll tally to 4,447, nearly all of them in West Africa, and the group said the number of probable and suspected cases was 8,914.
Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia have been hardest hit. Aylward said WHO was very concerned about the continued spread of Ebola in the three countries' capital cities -Freetown, Conakry and Monrovia.
He noted that while certain areas were seeing cases decline, 'that doesn't mean they will get to zero.'
He said the agency was still focused on trying to treat Ebola patients, despite the huge demands on the broken health systems in West Africa.
'It would be horrifically unethical to say that we're just going to isolate people,' he said, noting that new strategies like handing out protective equipment to families and setting up very basic clinics - without much treatment - was a priority.
In Berlin, a U.N. medical worker infected with Ebola in Liberia died despite 'intensive medical procedures.'
The St. Georg hospital in Leipzig said Tuesday that the 56-year-old man, whose name has not been released, died overnight of the infection.
The man tested positive for Ebola on Oct. 6, prompting Liberia's U.N. peacekeeping mission to place 41 other staff members under 'close medical observation.'
He arrived in Leipzig for treatment on Oct. 9. The hospital's chief executive, Dr. Iris Minde, said at the time there was no risk of infection for other people, since he was kept in a secure isolation ward specially equipped with negative pressure rooms that are hermetically sealed.
He was the third Ebola patient to be flown to Germany for treatment. The first man recovered and returned home to Senegal. A Uganda aid worker is still being treated in Frankfurt.
International aid organisation Doctors Without Borders said that 16 of its staff members have been infected with Ebola, and nine of them have died.
Speaking at a press conference in Johannesburg, the head of Doctors Without Borders in South Africa, Sharon Ekambaram, said medical workers have received inadequate assistance from the international community.
She said that while many pledges had been made publicly they have not improved the situation in the affected countries.
Juli Switala, a doctor working for the international aid organisation who just returned from Sierra Leone, said the number of those who have died from Ebola is probably an underestimate because many families hide their sick and dying loved ones.
More than 4,000 people have died from Ebola so far, according to the World Health Organisation.


Source: dailymail