--- title: Ebola Outbreak: CDC Director Tom Frieden Says Time Running Out description: The CDC says more needs to be done to fight Ebola before it's too late canonical: https://time.com/3257769/ebola-outbreak-west-africa-cdc/ author: Alexandra Sifferlin article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-09-02T17:27:06.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T08:00:46.671Z article:section: Health og:title: Ebola Outbreak: CDC Director Tom Frieden Says Time Running Out og:description: The CDC says more needs to be done to fight Ebola before it's too late og:url: https://time.com/3257769/ebola-outbreak-west-africa-cdc/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8766d528aa047260/6986a1b1e8524b64be60482d/ebola.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: A burial team in protective clothing retrieves the body an Ebola victim from an isolation ward in the West Point neighborhood of Monrovia, Liberia. og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Ebola Outbreak: CDC Director Tom Frieden Says Time Running Out twitter:description: The CDC says more needs to be done to fight Ebola before it's too late twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8766d528aa047260/6986a1b1e8524b64be60482d/ebola.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Window to Stop Ebola Outbreak Is 'Closing Quickly,' Official Warns ## Video: Meet The CDC Doctors Fighting Ebola [Watch (HLS stream): Meet The CDC Doctors Fighting Ebola](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/G194AmTC.m3u8) (2:32)  _Published 2014-08-13. Meet The CDC Doctors Fighting Ebola_ by [Alexandra Sifferlin](https://time.com/author/alexandra-sifferlin/) ## Alexandra Sifferlin Sep 2, 2014 5:27 PM UTC  A burial team in protective clothing retrieves the body of an Ebola victim from an isolation ward in the West Point neighborhood of Monrovia, the capital of Liberia, on Aug. 28, 2014 A burial team in protective clothing retrieves the body of an Ebola victim from an isolation ward in the West Point neighborhood of Monrovia, the capital of Liberia, on Aug. 28, 2014Daniel Berehulak—The New York TImes/Redux by [Alexandra Sifferlin](https://time.com/author/alexandra-sifferlin/) ## Alexandra Sifferlin Sep 2, 2014 5:27 PM UTC The window of opportunity to stop the Ebola outbreak in West Africa is “closing quickly,” a top health official said Tuesday. “The number of cases is so large, the epidemic is so overwhelming and it requires an overwhelming response,” Dr. Tom Frieden, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), told reporters Tuesday after returning to the U.S. Monday from a trip to the affected countries. Despite the efforts of health workers from the affected countries and elsewhere, cases of Ebola will continue to increase, Frieden said. Moments after his remarks, an aid group announced that another American doctor fighting the outbreak in Liberia has been infected. Groups like Doctors Without Borders that are treating patients are overwhelmed by the high number of cases, and have had to turn away infected people because of lack of space. Frieden said he saw patients lying on the ground in some West Africa clinics. He stressed that Ebola is a global problem, and that closing off affected countries like Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone — many airlines have stopped flying there — will only worsen the outbreak by cutting off access to needed supplies. “Getting supplies and people in is a big challenge,” Frieden said. “The more the world isolates and stops contact with these countries, the harder it will be to stop the outbreak.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3257769/ebola-outbreak-west-africa-cdc/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3257769/ebola-outbreak-west-africa-cdc/"},"headline":"Window to Stop Ebola Outbreak Is 'Closing Quickly,' Official Warns","datePublished":"2014-09-02T17:27:06.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-04T08:00:46.671Z","description":"The CDC says more needs to be done to fight Ebola before it's too late","url":"https://time.com/3257769/ebola-outbreak-west-africa-cdc/","keywords":["Infectious Disease","CDC","Sierra Leone","doctors without borders","WHO","ebola","Guinea","Liberia","Ebola outbreak","MSF"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8766d528aa047260/6986a1b1e8524b64be60482d/ebola.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Alexandra Sifferlin","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/alexandra-sifferlin/"}],"articleSection":"Health","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8766d528aa047260/6986a1b1e8524b64be60482d/ebola.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"A burial team in protective clothing retrieves the body an Ebola victim from an isolation ward in the West Point neighborhood of Monrovia, Liberia.","caption":"A burial team in protective clothing retrieves the body of an Ebola victim from an isolation ward in the West Point neighborhood of Monrovia, the capital of Liberia on Aug. 28, 2014.","creditText":"Daniel Berehulak—The New York TImes/Redux","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/health/","name":"Health"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/infectious-disease/","name":"Infectious Disease"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3257769/ebola-outbreak-west-africa-cdc/","name":"Window to Stop Ebola Outbreak Is 'Closing Quickly,' Official Warns"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Meet The CDC Doctors Fighting Ebola","description":"Meet The CDC Doctors Fighting Ebola","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/G194AmTC/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2014-08-13T23:41:12.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/G194AmTC.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/3257769/ebola-outbreak-west-africa-cdc/","duration":"PT2M32S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/3257769/ebola-outbreak-west-africa-cdc/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```