UN: Ebola cases could eventually reach 20,000

In this photo taken on Wednesday, Red Cross workers walk through a section of West Point, an area that has been hit hard by the Ebola virus, with residents not allowed to leave as government forces clamp down on movement to prevent the spread of Ebola, in Monrovia, Liberia. - photo by Associated Press

Liberia Ebola Werm 1 — In this photo taken on Wednesday, Red Cross workers walk through a section of West Point, an area that has been hit hard by the Ebola virus, with residents not allowed to leave as government forces clamp down on movement to prevent the spread of Ebola, in Monrovia, Liberia. - photo by Associated Press

GENEVA — The Ebola outbreak in West Africa eventually could exceed 20,000 cases, more than six times as many as are known now, the World Health Organization said Thursday as the United States announced plans to test an experimental Ebola vaccine. Currently, about half of the people infected with Ebola have died, so in a worst-case scenario the death toll could reach 10,000, the agency said, according to a plan released Thursday on how to stop the outbreak. The U.N. agency's latest figures show that 1,552 people have died from the virus from among the 3,069 cases reported so far in Liberia, Sierra Leone, Guinea and Nigeria.

Associated Press

Associated Press