© Cellou Binani/AFP via Getty ImagesGuinea's Red Cross health workers wearing protective suits carry a stretcher at the NGO Medecin sans frontieres Ebola treatement centre near the hospital Donka in Conakry on Sept. 14, 2014.
The report, scheduled to be released next week, was described by two people familiar with its contents, who asked to remain anonymous because it isn't yet public.
The projection, which vastly outstrips previous estimates, is under review by researchers and may change. It assumes no additional aid or intervention by governments and relief agencies, which are mobilizing to contain the Ebola outbreak before it spirals further out of control in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea.
"CDC is working on a dynamic modeling tool that allows for recalculations of projected Ebola cases over time," Barbara Reynolds, a spokeswoman for the agency, said in an e-mail. "CDC expects to release this interactive tool and a description of its use soon."
The World Health Organization said last month that the outbreak could reach 20,000 cases before being brought under control. That projection is already outdated, WHO spokesman Dan Epstein said yesterday in a phone interview.
Steep Curve
"In the three weeks since then the numbers have doubled, so all three countries are still reporting cases on a steep upward curve," Epstein said. "We don't have a good idea of how big this epidemic will become."
If the response is not increased, there may be as many as 5,000 new cases a week, he said.
The WHO's estimates are meant to help assess international relief needs, such as how many hospital beds to build and the amount of medical supplies needed. The U.S. is currently adding personnel and money to the effort.
"It's already the worst outbreak in history," Tim Shenk, a spokesman for the humanitarian group Doctors Without Borders, said in a phone interview. He said the actions of the U.S. government will determine whether the growing epidemic can be contained.
"What we've been clear about is that we are doing everything we can do and it's not nearly enough," Shenk said.
Since the start of the outbreak this year, the virus has infected 5,357 people, killing 2,630, according to a Sept. 18 WHO report. The disease has spread through five West African countries, accelerating in cities, including Monrovia, the capital of Liberia.
Emergency UN Mission
The United Nations yesterday announced the creation of a special emergency mission to respond to the crisis, saying the effort needs to increase greatly.
"This is a disease outbreak that is advancing in an exponential fashion," said David Nabarro, named special envoy to West Africa by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon. "I estimate that to get ahead of outbreak, the level of response needs to be about 20 times greater than it is at the moment."
The U.S. is intensifying its effort, planning to deploy about 3,000 U.S. military personnel to the region to assist with shipping and distributing medical supplies and building treatment centers.
Comment: Sorry, but we couldn't resist:
Military Arrives
Major General Darryl Williams, U.S. Army-Africa commander, arrived in Monrovia on Sept. 17 with a 12-person team to assess the situation there, Rear Admiral John Kirby, a Pentagon spokesman, said yesterday at a press conference. That includes deciding where to build treatment sites and what else will be needed from the U.S. military.
One C-17 transport plane has already arrived, and two more are scheduled for next week, bringing 45 personnel and helping to set up a command headquarters, Kirby said.
Asked about the CDC projection, White House press secretary Josh Earnest said the U.S. commitment of $1 billion for the response to Ebola will have the effect of spurring other nations to increase their assistance.
"The projections you're citing are long-term projections," Earnest said yesterday. "That's why the president was demonstrating a sense of urgency" when he spoke about the outbreak earlier this week.
Predictive models have varied as researchers struggle to estimate an outbreak on a size and scale never seen before with Ebola.
Previous Estimates
A separate worst-case scenario modeled last month by researchers at the University of Tokyo and Arizona State University predicted there would be as many as 277,124 new cases by the year's end.
That was the high end of their estimate, though the researchers warned that "uncontrolled cross-border transmission could fuel a major epidemic to take off in new geographical areas."
Columbia University researchers predicted 18,755 cases by Oct. 26 if the situation didn't change, and 49,129 if intervention and containment efforts degraded.
"Our understanding of Ebola transmission dynamics is incomplete and data on the present outbreak are limited," the researchers said.
Curbing the outbreak will require investments of $988 million over the next six months, according to an overview of needs and requirements published by the UN. About 30 percent of what's needed has come in so far, Nabarro said earlier this week at a briefing in Geneva.
There is no cure for Ebola, which is spread by contact with the blood and bodily fluids of those infected. The disease normally is treated by keeping patients hydrated, replacing lost blood and using antibiotics to fight infections. The hope is that a patient's immune system will fight off the aggressive attack of the virus.
Several companies and government health authorities are testing experimental treatments and vaccines against the disease.
With the number of disease based outbreaks growing worldwide, the chances of a pandemic is rapidly growing. And if one or more don't appear within the next five years, it'll be a miracle.
I'm really beginning to suspect that our time on this world is coming to an end. Hopefully whatever replaces us as the dominant race does a better job than we've done. Lord knows, they'd be hard pressed to do a worse one