Ebola Death Rate 70 Percent, WHO Says in Dire New Forecast

[B2G]

Source: NBC News

World Health Organization researchers issued a dire new forecast for the Ebola epidemic Tuesday, one that sees 20,000 cases by November, much sooner than previous estimates. And 70 percent of patients are dying.

That's a big increase over the previous estimates of a 50 percent fatality rate.

“These data indicate that without drastic improvements in control measures, the numbers of cases of and deaths from Ebola virus disease are expected to continue increasing from hundreds to thousands per week in the coming months,” the WHO Ebola Response Team, led by Dr. Christopher Dye, wrote in a report rushed into print by the New England Journal of Medicine.

This projection includes nearly 10,000 people in Liberia alone. WHO said earlier Monday that more than 5,800 people had been infected with Ebola and more than 2,800 had died of it since the virus first broke out in Guinea in December.



Read more: http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/ebola-virus-outbreak/ebola-death-rate-70-percent-who-says-dire-new-forecast-n209226

[OnlinePoker]

1. According to WHO, mortality can be anywhere between 25% and 90%

50% has been the average. I think that given the rapid spread of the disease, there are insufficient resources to contain it. This is really getting out of hand.

http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs103/en/

[LisaL]

2. No, WHO is saying mortality rate is on average at 70 %, not 50%.

50% is not an accurate estimate.

[OnlinePoker]

3. I was talking average fatality rate in past outbreaks, not this one. n/t

[thevoiceofreason]

4. The only reason the % was so low before

Was because there were so many new cases. Everyone has expected the mortality rate to climb. We can hope that it is a sign of a reduction in the exponential expansion of infection (but I tend to be overly optimistic).