Ebola Spreads Exponentially In Liberia, Many More Cases Soon: WHO

Liberia, the country worst hit by West Africa's Ebola epidemic, should see thousands of new cases in coming weeks as the virus spreads exponentially, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Monday.  The epidemic, the worst since the disease was discovered in 1976, has killed some 2,100 people in Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia and Nigeria and has also spread to Senegal.  The WHO believes it will take six to nine months to contain and may infect up to 20,000 people. In Liberia, the disease has already killed 1,089 people - more than half of all deaths reported since March in this regional epidemic.

"Transmission of the Ebola virus in Liberia is already intense and the number of new cases is increasing exponentially," the U.N. agency said in a statement. "The number of new cases is moving far faster than the capacity to manage them in Ebola-specific treatment centers."

Fourteen of Liberia's 15 counties have reported confirmed cases. As soon as a new Ebola treatment center is opened, it immediately overflows with patients.  "In Monrovia, taxis filled with entire families, of whom some members are thought to be infected with the Ebola virus, crisscross the city, searching for a treatment bed. There are none," it said...