WHO says that the Ebola virus could infect 20,000 people, new casualty figures released. Yahoo/AFP

Nurses help a man with Ebola to the hospital. Yahoo/AFP.

The World Health Organization estimates that up to 20,000 could be infected with the disease before the crisis ends. Yahoo/AFP. New figures released by WHO show that 3062 people have been infected while 1552 have died from Ebola in four countries. Hopes that the virus had been contained in Nigeria were shown to be premature after the virus escaped the capital of Lagos. A doctor who had treated the index case in Nigeria died in the countries oil heartland. 

My Comment:

Grim news out of Africa. I think the WHO is a bit optimistic here. The situation is completely out of control in Liberia and the other three countries aren't that much better off. The fact that Nigeria has been unable to contain Ebola has failed does not bode well. But the situation in the West Point slum in Liberia is completely out of control. The situation is so dire there that government troops are shooting people to sustain the quarantine. There is a slight, though real, possibility that 20,000 infections could happen in West Point alone. That's about the worst case scenario but it seems that these governments are completely incapable of containing the outbreak. Of course the virus has also broken out in the Democratic Republic of Congo, so this is now a war on two fronts. 

Also, I don't know why it took so long to release the updated figures. There was an 8 day gap between the last report and the numbers released today. The info was for the 26th but that still leaves a 6 day gap. I am guessing that the WHO isn't clear about these numbers and given how chaotic and dysfunctional things are. Treat them as a "best guess" and not a clear accounting of the issue.