--- title: WHO: 'Many Thousands' of New Ebola Cases Amid 'Exponential Increase' description: Responders must prepare to ramp up their efforts between three and four times, as thousands of new cases are expected in the coming weeks canonical: https://time.com/3307024/who-many-thousands-of-new-ebola-cases-expected-in-coming-weeks/ author: Per Liljas article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-09-09T04:32:47.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T08:00:43.489Z article:section: Health og:title: WHO: Ebola Will Increase Exponentially in Coming Weeks og:description: Liberia taxis have turned into "hot sources" of transmission, as infected people criss-cross around town in futile attempts to find hospital beds og:url: https://time.com/3307024/who-many-thousands-of-new-ebola-cases-expected-in-coming-weeks/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb18490dcc3e034fd/6986a26e55a85947b0a82745/ap582515532074.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1651 og:image:height: 929 og:image:alt: AP582515532074 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: WHO: Ebola Will Increase Exponentially in Coming Weeks twitter:description: Liberia taxis have turned into "hot sources" of transmission, as infected people criss-cross around town in futile attempts to find hospital beds twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb18490dcc3e034fd/6986a26e55a85947b0a82745/ap582515532074.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # WHO: 'Many Thousands' of New Ebola Cases Expected in Coming Weeks > Sponsored content. 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Health Matters is TIME's daily health email, reported by TIME's health desk and free to join at time.com/newsletters. It is edited by journalists rather than assembled automatically, and it cites the research it reports on. #### Is Health Matters free? Yes. Health Matters is a free daily newsletter from TIME, available at time.com/newsletters. #### Who reads TIME's Health Matters newsletter? Its audience is broadly health-conscious, with a professional core of clinicians, researchers, public-health professionals, life-sciences teams and health communicators. ## Video: Liberian Medics Suit Up to Fight Ebola [Watch (HLS stream): Liberian Medics Suit Up to Fight Ebola](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/3yNWFTxm.m3u8) (0:44)  _Published 2014-09-09. Medics at the Ebola treatment unit in Monrovia's JFK Hospital suit up in protectve gear before attending to patients._ by [Per Liljas](https://time.com/author/per-liljas/) ## Per Liljas Sep 9, 2014 4:32 AM UTC  Health workers, attend to patients that contracted the Ebola virus, at a clinic in Monrovia, Liberia, Monday, Sept. 8, 2014. Health workers, attend to patients that contracted the Ebola virus, at a clinic in Monrovia, Liberia, Monday, Sept. 8, 2014.Abbas Dulleh—AP by [Per Liljas](https://time.com/author/per-liljas/) ## Per Liljas Sep 9, 2014 4:32 AM UTC The World Health Organization (WHO) [says](http://www.who.int/mediacentre/news/ebola/8-september-2014/en/) responders to the Ebola outbreak in West Africa need to prepare to scale up their efforts three to four times as the number of cases sees an “exponential increase” over coming weeks. The U.N. body has been assessing the situation in Liberia, and outlines a desperate situation there and in other countries with a high rate of disease transmission in a statement released on Monday. “As soon as a new Ebola treatment facility is opened, it immediately fills to overflowing with patients, pointing to a large but previously invisible caseload,” the WHO stated. “Many thousands of new cases are expected in Liberia over the coming three weeks.” About 4,000 people have been confirmed infected with Ebola since the outbreak started in March, and around half of these have died. Guinea and Sierra Leone have been hard hit, but Liberia has recorded the highest cumulative number of reported cases and deaths. The transmission rate there remains perilous and in Montserrado county, which includes the capital Monrovia, “only half of the urgent and immediate capacity needs could be met within the next few weeks and months.” The massive pressure on health facilities is aggravating the risk for further contagion. Sick people and their relatives are shuttling through the city in taxis, searching in vain for available hospital beds. Since Ebola is transmitted through bodily fluids such as blood and sweat, the lack of disinfection of these vehicles have turned them into a “hot source” for spreading the disease, according to the WHO. At an emergency African Union meeting in Addis Ababa on Monday, officials [said](http://www.foxnews.com/health/2014/09/08/african-union-officials-warn-efforts-to-stop-ebola-are-stigmatizing/) that measures to curb the outbreak such as border closures, flight bans and extensive quarantines had created a sense of siege in the worst-hit West African countries. Public health officials have previously deemed the closure of porous borders ineffective, and it has been pointed out that bans on transportation — most notably flights to and from the continental airport hubs in Nairobi and Johannesburg — are not only taking a severe economic toll on these stricken nations, but [making](http://www.economist.com/news/middle-east-and-africa/21615641-quarantines-are-hampering-fight-against-epidemic-unintended-consequences?fsrc=scn/tw/te/pe/unintendedconsequences) aid deliveries more difficult. African Union Chairwoman Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma [said](http://online.wsj.com/articles/african-nations-working-to-lift-ebola-travel-bans-1410198048) thorough border checks for people displaying Ebola-like symptoms should replace blanket bans on people arriving from Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea, but that the decision should be made by the individual countries themselves, the _Wall Street_ _Journal_ reports. “We are not working on schedules, whether you will lift \[the ban\] tomorrow or this evening. We are working on principle decisions, which we expect our member states to implement,” Dlamini-Zuma said. “The decision was that it must be urgently done.” Senegal officials announced at the meeting that they would allow humanitarian aid to pass through its closed borders. _Medics at the Ebola treatment unit in Monrovia’s JFK Hospital suit up in protective gear before attending to their patients._ ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3307024/who-many-thousands-of-new-ebola-cases-expected-in-coming-weeks/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3307024/who-many-thousands-of-new-ebola-cases-expected-in-coming-weeks/"},"headline":"WHO: 'Many Thousands' of New Ebola Cases Expected in Coming Weeks","datePublished":"2014-09-09T04:32:47.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-04T08:00:43.489Z","description":"Liberia taxis have turned into \"hot sources\" of transmission as infected people crisscross town in futile attempts to find hospital beds","url":"https://time.com/3307024/who-many-thousands-of-new-ebola-cases-expected-in-coming-weeks/","keywords":["Infectious Disease","Africa","WHO","ebola","Liberia"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb18490dcc3e034fd/6986a26e55a85947b0a82745/ap582515532074.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Per Liljas","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/per-liljas/"}],"articleSection":"Health","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb18490dcc3e034fd/6986a26e55a85947b0a82745/ap582515532074.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"AP582515532074","caption":"Health workers, attend to patients that contracted the Ebola virus, at a clinic in Monrovia, Liberia, Monday, Sept. 8, 2014.","creditText":"Abbas Dulleh—AP","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/3307024/who-many-thousands-of-new-ebola-cases-expected-in-coming-weeks/","name":"WHO: 'Many Thousands' of New Ebola Cases Expected in Coming Weeks"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Liberian Medics Suit Up to Fight Ebola","description":"Medics at the Ebola treatment unit in Monrovia's JFK Hospital suit up in protectve gear before attending to patients.","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/3yNWFTxm/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2014-09-09T03:37:08.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/3yNWFTxm.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/3307024/who-many-thousands-of-new-ebola-cases-expected-in-coming-weeks/","duration":"PT44S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/3307024/who-many-thousands-of-new-ebola-cases-expected-in-coming-weeks/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```