New figures published Monday by the World Health Organization reveal a far worse outlook than it had previously anticipated for the Ebola epidemic in West Africa. 
 
 In addition to predicting many more cases and deaths, the new report for the first time raises the possibility that the epidemic will not be brought under control and that the disease will become endemic in West Africa, meaning that it could reach a steady state and become a constant presence there. 
 
 “The epidemiologic outlook is bleak,” the report said. 
 
 If control does not improve now, there will be more than 20,000 cases by Nov. 2, and the numbers of cases and deaths will continue increasing from hundreds to thousands per week for months to come, according to the report. The death rate is about 70 percent in each of the heavily affected countries, Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone. 
 
 The new estimates were published online in The New England Journal of Medicine by a team of more than 50 scientists. An earlier prediction by the health organization was far less dire, saying there might be 20,000 cases in nine months. 
 
 So far, there have been 5,843 cases, including 2,803 deaths, with the most cases, 3,022, reported by Liberia. But the scientists say it is likely that many cases have not been detected. 
 
 Although researchers are scrambling to produce and test drugs to treat the disease and vaccines to prevent it, the report says they are unlikely to be available for months — and have not yet been fully tested in humans. 
 
 An editorial in the same journal called the epidemic “an avoidable crisis,” and faulted a “highly inadequate and late global response” for letting it surge out of control. It was written by Dr. Jeremy J. Farrar of the Wellcome Trust, and Dr. Peter Piot of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. Dr. Piot helped discover the Ebola virus in 1976. 
 
 The editorial also warns that it will be impossible to control the epidemic “without a massive increase in the response, way beyond what is being planned,” and says that drugs and vaccines are urgently needed. The epidemic is growing so large, they write, that standard containment measures — isolating the sick and monitoring their contacts for signs of illness every day for 21 days — may not be feasible. One patient can easily have 10 contacts, so the number to be traced has already reached into the tens of thousands. No organization now has the staffing to follow that many people. 
 
 If Ebola becomes endemic in West Africa, Dr. Piot and Dr. Farrar say, the region could become a reservoir of the virus and pose a constant threat to the rest of Africa and other parts of the world. 
 
 Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone are among the world’s poorest countries, and the epidemic has overwhelmed their health care systems, which were weak to begin with. The editorial predicts that these nations will see many more deaths from childbirth, malaria, tuberculosis, AIDS, dysentery, pneumonia and chronic diseases. “Indeed,” the authors say, “there is a very real danger of a complete breakdown in civic society.” ||||| GENEVA (AP) — A World Health Organization official says the death rate in the current Ebola outbreak has increased to 70 percent. 
 
 WHO assistant director-general Dr. Bruce Aylward gave the figure during a news conference Tuesday. 
 
 Aylward said that the 70 percent 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. 
 
 Previously, WHO had said the death rate was around 50 percent. 
 
 THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below. 
 
 A World Health Organization official says there could be up to 10,000 new cases of Ebola per week within two months. 
 
 WHO assistant director-general Dr. Bruce 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 percent 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. ||||| Government health workers are seen during the administration of blood tests for the Ebola virus in Kenema, Sierra Leone, June 25, 2014. (Umaru Fofana/Reuters) 
 
 “I don’t believe in Ebola,” Craig Manning’s local driver told him as he chauffeured the viral emergency specialist through Freetown, Sierra Leone, where infection rates are rising. The man came from a rural part of the country where people were already dying from the virus. He was adamant, like many others in his community, that “there is no such thing as Ebola.” 
 
 He is wrong. The epidemic, the deadliest on record, continues to batter Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia, with 85 new cases and 68 new deaths reported in only four days earlier this month, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). Sierra Leone bore the brunt of new infections and deaths, with 49 new cases and 52 deaths reported. The total number of cases stands at 982, with 613 deaths as of July 17. 
 
 Yet, as the Ebola virus continues to spread in West Africa, so do the rumors. Some say you can contract Ebola from a motorcycle helmet. Others say you can cure the deadly virus by drinking Nescafé mixed with cocoa and sugar — or with two large onions. 
 
 It’s Manning’s job to take onions out of the equation. 
 
 A health communications strategist with the Viral Special Pathogens Branch of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Manning was sent to Guinea at the first outbreak of the Ebola crisis in March. When one of his colleagues, Pierre Roland, an expert on Ebola, gave a presentation at the U.S. Embassy in Conkary about mitigating risks of transmission, Manning recorded him. He then had the edited 30 second snippets translated into 10 local languages and broadcast over local radio stations and TV. 
 
 When the virus spread to Sierra Leone, Manning followed it, teaming up with BBC Media Action to bring together radio station managers from across the country to help spread the word. 
 
 Manning said aggressive intervention is necessary to prevent more people from becoming infected, but ensuring local populations understand Ebola first is essential. For instance, in areas where the virus has spread, relatives wash bodies by hand before funerals, putting families at risk of new infections. 
 
 “People do not easily accept the idea that teams will take their deceased loved one, put them in a bag and bury them somewhere different,” said Manning. “The challenge is to strike a balance.” 
 
 
 
 Health workers carry the body of an Ebola virus victim in Kenema, Sierra Leone, on June 25, 2014. (Umaru Fofana/Reuters) 
 
 This balance demands communication, according to WHO spokesperson Daniel Epstein. 
 
 “There are a set of beliefs and myths that impede our messages about treatment – it is a huge challenge,” he said. 
 
 Doctors Without Borders has been unable to gain access to some affected areas due to hostility from the people there. Local communities fear outsiders are bringing the virus with them or want to exterminate the infected, since so few who get treatment return alive. 
 
 WHO is helping coordinate information sessions on Ebola to train local leaders how the virus is transmitted and how people can stop it. 
 
 “It is necessary for any group engaging in Ebola control to provide health education prior to initiating any other intervention,” said Rashid Ansumana, a researcher at Mercy Hospital Research Lab in the city of Bo, Sierra Leone, where 15 physicians treat a population of more than 150,000. Ansumana comes from the city of Kailahun, an epicenter of the outbreak, and said a large number of new infections are going undetected. His family lives in constant fear. 
 
 “One false rumor that is circulating is that health officials might inject suspected Ebola patients with lethal substances,” he said. He suggested HIV prevention protocols, which people are familiar with, can be used to explain how Ebola can be transmitted through blood or other body fluids. 
 
 In 2012, Mercy Hospital used the crowdsourcing platform Ushahidi to monitor an outbreak of the highly infectious Chikungunya virus, technology he believes could be employed to combat Ebola. 
 
 Crowdsourcing data during emergencies has become an important new way to quickly source information about people at risk and to locate the epicenters of the crisis, used to great effect during the earthquake in Haiti to aid a targeted, effective response. 
 
 “In West Africa, someone who has Ebola might not seek testing or treatment due to the monetary costs or the fear of getting a positive result for the virus, the impact and potential stigma that has for their family,” said Kathryn H. Jacobsen, associate professor for epidemiology at the Department of Global and Community Health at George Mason University. For diseases such as malaria, she said, people in this region will often go to a local pharmacy where medication is available without a prescription, rarely going to hospital. 
 
 “To have people reporting in cases through text messaging would be a very helpful system,” she said. 
 
 
 
 Healthcare workers prepare isolation and treatment areas in Gueckedou, Guinea, in March 2014. (Kjell Gunnar Beraas/MSF via AP) 
 
 WHO has been operating emergency Ebola hotlines in the affected countries that get 200 to 300 calls a day. The organization is exploring text messaging, since 40 percent of affected populations use mobile phones. 
 
 Doctors Without Borders have brought anthropologists on board in an attempt to better understand the traditions and cultures of the people they are treating. 
 
 While expert advice is important, the key to getting the message through to communities in more isolated areas is building a network of local spokespersons and engaging religious and cultural leaders. 
 
 There have been small victories. Manning said his driver had come to trust him. 
 
 One day, his driver tugged on his sleeve at a gas station. Out of the blue, he said: “I want you to speak to these people about Ebola.” ||||| Image copyright Getty Images Image caption More than 3,330 people have died in Africa from the deadly Ebola outbreak 
 
 A cameraman working in Liberia has tested positive for Ebola and is to be flown home to the US for treatment. 
 
 The 33-year-old freelancer has been working in the country for three years for a number of media outlets, most recently NBC News. 
 
 More than 3,330 people have died in four West African countries in what has become the world's worst outbreak. 
 
 President Barack Obama has pledged federal support to contain the spread in the US, after the first case there. 
 
 A Liberian man diagnosed in Texas on Tuesday remains in a serious condition. 
 
 The unnamed cameraman is the fourth American known to test positive for Ebola, all diagnosed in Liberia. 
 
 Three American aid workers were separately flown back to the US for treatment and they are all recovering. 
 
 The man was only hired by NBC News on Tuesday, the US broadcaster said, and he came down with symptoms - including fever and aches - the following day. 
 
 After seeking medical advice, he tested positive for the virus. 
 
 Image copyright AP Image caption Duncan was a driver for a courier company in Monrovia 
 
 Image copyright Reuters Image caption Frankfurt University Hospital prepares to receive an Ebola patient from Africa 
 
 NBC News President Deborah Turness informed staff of the news in a statement. 
 
 "We are doing everything we can to get him the best care possible. He will be flown back to the United States for treatment at a medical center that is equipped to handle Ebola patients." 
 
 The rest of the NBC crew including the network's chief medical editor, Dr Nancy Snyderman, are being flown back to the US on a private charter flight and will be placed under quarantine for 21 days, Ms Turness added. 
 
 Meanwhile, as many as 100 people in Texas are being checked for exposure to Ebola, after Thomas Eric Duncan, a Liberian national, was diagnosed with the virus in Dallas. 
 
 He flew to the US two weeks ago to visit relatives. 
 
 A number of them have been ordered to stay home while they are watched for signs of the disease. 
 
 Image copyright AP Image caption A pedestrian in Dallas takes precautions near the hospital holding Mr Duncan 
 
 Image copyright Reuters Image caption Mr Duncan's relatives have to stay indoors 
 
 Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings was called by Mr Obama on Thursday who promised to help with whatever was needed from federal resources to stop it spreading. 
 
 Mr Duncan was the first person diagnosed on US soil and on Thursday, Liberian officials said they would prosecute him for lying on an Ebola questionnaire form prior to leaving the country. 
 
 Deputy Information Minister Isaac Jackson said Mr Duncan had "lied under oath about his Ebola status". 
 
 He is alleged to have taken a sick relative to a clinic. 
 
 In West Africa. the outbreak has prompted dire warnings of economic collapse if infection rates continue. 
 
 There have been 7,178 confirmed cases in total, with Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea suffering the most. 
 
 Leading charity Save the Children has warned that Ebola was spreading at a "terrifying rate" in West Africa, with the number of new recorded cases doubling every few weeks. 
 
 It said that a rate of five new Ebola cases an hour in Sierra Leone meant healthcare demands were far outstripping supply. 
 
 At a conference in London co-hosted with Sierra Leone, the UK called for urgent decisive action from the international community. 
 
 Ebola virus disease (EVD) 
 
 Image copyright SPL 
 
 Symptoms include high fever, bleeding and central nervous system damage 
 
 Spread by body fluids, such as blood and saliva 
 
 Fatality rate can reach 90% - but current outbreak has mortality rate of about 70% 
 
 Incubation period is two to 21 days 
 
 There is no proven vaccine or cure 
 
 Supportive care such as rehydrating patients who have diarrhoea and vomiting can help recovery 
 
 Fruit bats, a delicacy for some West Africans, are considered to be virus's natural host 
 
 Ebola virus: Busting the myths ||||| (Adds CDC will send 50 staff to West Africa, statement from Brantly's wife) 
 
 By Rich McKay 
 
 ATLANTA Aug 3 (Reuters) - An American doctor stricken with the deadly Ebola virus while in Liberia and brought to the United States for treatment in a special isolation ward is improving, the top U.S. health official said on Sunday. 
 
 Dr Kent Brantly was able to walk, with help, from an ambulance after he was flown on Saturday to Atlanta, where he is being treated by infectious disease specialists at Emory University Hospital. 
 
 "It's encouraging that he seems to be improving - that's really important - and we're hoping he'll continue to improve," said Dr. Tom Frieden, director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta. 
 
 Frieden told CBS's "Face the Nation" it was too soon to predict whether Brantly would survive, and a hospital spokesman said Emory did not expect to provide any updates on the doctor's condition on Sunday. 
 
 Brantly is a 33-year-old father of two young children who works for the North Carolina-based Christian organization, Samaritan's Purse. He was in Liberia responding to the worst Ebola outbreak on record when he contracted the disease. 
 
 Since February, more than 700 people in West Africa have died from Ebola, a hemorrhagic virus with a death rate of up to 90 percent of those infected. The fatality rate in the current epidemic is about 60 percent. 
 
 Frieden told ABC's "This Week" that the CDC was "surging" its response, and that it will send 50 staff to West Africa "to help stop the outbreak in the next 30 days." 
 
 Amber Brantly, Dr. Brantly's wife, said she was able to see her husband on Sunday and he was in good spirits, and that the family is confident he is receiving the very best care. "He thanked everyone for their prayers," she said in a statement. 
 
 A second U.S. aid worker who contracted Ebola alongside Brantly, missionary Nancy Writebol, will be brought to the United States on a later flight as the medical aircraft is equipped to carry only one patient at a time. 
 
 Standard treatment for the disease is to provide supportive care. In Atlanta, doctors will try to maintain blood pressure and support breathing, with a respirator if needed, or provide dialysis if patients experience kidney failure, as some Ebola sufferers do. 
 
 SECOND MISSIONARY EXPECTED SOON 
 
 Writebol, a 59-year-old mother of two who worked to decontaminate those entering and leaving an Ebola isolation unit in Liberia, was due to depart for the United States overnight on Monday, Liberia's information minister said. 
 
 Writebol's husband, David, who had been living and working in Liberia with his wife, was expected to travel home separately in the next few days, their missionary organization, SIM USA, said in a statement. 
 
 Despite public concern over bringing in Ebola patients, the CDC's Frieden said the United States may see a few isolated cases in people who have been traveling, but did not expect widespread Ebola in the country. 
 
 The facility at Emory chosen to treat the two infected Americans was set up with CDC and is one of four in the country with the ability to handle such cases. 
 
 The Americans will be treated primarily by four infectious disease physicians, and will be able to see relatives through a plate-glass window and speak to them by phone or intercom. 
 
 Frieden said it was unlikely Brantly's wife and children, who left Liberia before he began showing symptoms, contracted the disease because people who are exposed to Ebola but not yet sick cannot infect others. 
 
 The CDC has said it is not aware of any Ebola patient having been treated in the United States previously. Five people entered the country in the past decade with either Lassa Fever or Marburg, both hemorrhagic fevers similar to Ebola. 
 
 President Barack Obama has said some participants at an Africa summit in Washington this week would be screened for Ebola exposure. Frieden said on Sunday there was no reason to cancel the event. 
 
 "There are 50 million travelers from around the world that come to the U.S. each year ... We're not going to hermetically seal this country," he told Fox News Sunday. (Additional reporting by Emma Farge in Dakar; Writing by Doina Chiacu and Cynthia Johnston; Editing by Frances Kerry and Sandra Maler) ||||| More than 20,000 people could become infected with the deadly ebola virus, the World Health Organisation has said. 
 
 The UN health agency warned the actual number of current ebola cases in hard-hit areas could be 12,000 - four times higher than the number confirmed at present. 
 
 In what amounted to be a bleak assessment of the disease, the WHO said it believed the virus was still being spread in a "substantial number of localities" and added that "the outbreak continues to accelerate". 
 
 It also expressed concern at the unprecedented number of health workers who have died after treating patients in West African countries including Liberia, Guinea, Nigeria and Sierra Leone. 
 
 The WHO's assistant director-general, Dr Bruce Aylward, said: "This far outstrips any historic ebola outbreak in numbers, as the largest outbreak in the past was about 400 cases. 
 
 The outbreak has put immense strain on medical resources in West Africa 
 
 "What we are seeing today, in contrast to previous ebola outbreaks, are multiple hotspots within these countries - not a single, remote forested area, the kind of environments that have been tackled in the past. And then not multiple hotspots within one country, but international disease." 
 
 Of the 3,069 cases reported since the outbreak began, 40% of them have emerged in the past three weeks, according to the latest figures. 
 
 Its update on the outbreak came shortly after GlaxoSmithKline announced it was forming a new consortium to accelerate development of a vaccine to treat ebola. 
 
 Developed in partnership with the US National Institute of Health, it is set to be tested on healthy human volunteers within the next couple of weeks to see if it is safe and effective. 
 
 As the trials take place, the pharmaceuticals giant is set to manufacture 10,000 extra doses of the vaccine which can be used by the WHO if the clinical tests are successful. 
 
 William Pooley, a health worker, was the first Briton to contract ebola 
 
 Speaking in Geneva, the agency said it hopes to stop the spread of ebola across West Africa in the next six to nine months, with a particular focus on ensuring the virus doesn't spread internationally. 
 
 Dr Aylward said its plan will cost £300m to implement, with 12,750 health workers needed around the globe to tend to patients. 
 
 "Response activities must be adapted in areas of very intense transmission and particular attention must be given to stopping transmission in capital cities and major ports, thereby facilitating the larger response and relief effort," he added.
– Recent news on the Ebola outbreak paints a bleak portrait of the disease by numbers: 70%: The current death rate from the disease, the World Health Organization again confirmed today. That's an increase from the initial 50% cited by WHO, the AP reports. 10,000: The number of new Ebola cases WHO says are possible each week, starting at some point in the next two months. In other words, the effort to grapple with the disease needs a big boost within 60 days, says an official. 9: The number of workers for another health organization, Doctors Without Borders, who have died fighting the outbreak, the AP reports. An additional seven have been infected. 70: The number of health workers at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital who took care of the first US Ebola patient, Thomas Eric Duncan, who died of the virus. One of them is the nurse who's now suffering from the disease. $500,000: The potential cost of care for Ashoka Mukpo, a freelance cameraman who picked up Ebola in Liberia. His friends set up a crowdfunding campaign last week to help pay his bills, the Fiscal Times reports; you can contribute here. $32.6 billion: The possible economic toll the disease could take by the end of next year, the New York Times reports. The number comes from the World Bank and refers to a situation in which "the epidemic spreads into neighboring countries" around its center in West Africa. 4,447: The total number of deaths from the disease, per WHO, which says the total number of likely cases is 8,914. There's one non-grim number to add to the mix: $25 million, which is what Mark Zuckerberg and his wife are donating to the fight.