Ebola’s death toll has risen by 400 in just a couple of days.  The UN World Health Organization (WHO) says it is now 4,447 dead, the vast majority of whom were in West Africa in the countries of Guinea, Sierra Leone, and Liberia – the latter nation having about half of all deaths in this epidemic.  And that’s not even the worst news.

WHO assistant director-general Bruce Aylward says there could be as many as 10,000 new cases per week by mid-December, if efforts to stop Ebola were not stepped up.  As it stands now, there’ve bee 8,914 infections and the number of cases will exceed 9,000 in West Africa this week.

Ebola is slowing in some of the worst-hit areas.  But at the same time, it has reached “more districts, counties and prefectures” than it had a month ago.  And therefore the case numbers will continue to rise.

If it goes to 10,000 new cases a week by 1 December, it means that 7,000 beds would be needed for treatment.  But under current planning, only 4,300 beds will be available by then.  And many of those would not have staff to operate them.