© 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 Ebola outbreak in West Africa could spread to
hundreds of thousands more people by the end of January, according to an estimate under development by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that puts one worst-case scenario at
550,000 or more infections.
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That projection is already outdated, WHO spokesman Dan Epstein said yesterday in a phone interview.
Comment: On September 16, 2013 it was reported that crows and pigeons in Bhaktapur dropped dead in flight:
Terror grips Bhaktapur folk as birds drop dead in Nepal