The head of the Centers For Disease Control, returning from West Africa, says the Ebola outbreak is “the world’s first Ebola epidemic.”
CDC Director Dr. Tom Frieden
AP / Molly Riley
"It is the world's first Ebola epidemic," said Dr. Tom Frieden, Director of the Centers For Disease Control, returning from a tour of West Africa countries battling by the Ebola outbreak.
In an interview with CBS This Morning Monday, Frieden said Ebola is "spiraling out of control" in West Africa. "It's bad now, it's going to get worse in the very near future."
So far, there have been more than 3,500 reported cases of Ebola and 1,552 deaths during the outbreak, according to the World Health Organization.
The WHO said that the number of Ebola cases could eventually exceed 20,000 — over six times as many as those currently known to doctors.
"There is still a window of opportunity to tamp it down, but that window is rapidly closing," Frieden said.
During a press briefing Monday on his West Africa trip, Dr. Frieden described the working conditions doctors and aides are facing in the region as "roasting hot."
"Sweat pours down into your goggles, your eyes," Dr. Frieden said.
Dr. Frieden said that he met with burial teams whose families and communities would not let them sleep in their homes for fear of exposing the virus.
Dr. Frieden also called the shortage of food and supplies in the region "a big problem."
from BuzzFeed - Breaking http://ift.tt/1w3hsm7
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