WHO warns that Liberia faces extinction by Ebola outbreak

The death toll from the Ebola outbreak in West Africa-the worst in recorded history-jumped by almost 200 in one day, bringing the total to at least 2,296 deaths the World Health Organization (WHO) reported on September 9.

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LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - The toll is now likely much higher then that, the WHO also reported, and five West African countries have recorded more than 4,293 cases of Ebola as of September 6.

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Alarmingly, the WHO does not yet have the current figures for Liberia, the country which has been hardest hit by the outbreak. The WHO did say it expects there to be thousands of new cases in Liberia over the next three weeks.

Liberia's president, Ellen Sirleaf, said on September 9 that she expects the Ebola crisis to worsen in the coming weeks, as health workers struggle with inadequate supplies, a fearful population, overburdened medical infrastructure and diminishing outside support.

"It remains a very grave situation," she said via Skype at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. "It is taking a long time to respond effectively .... We expect it to accelerate for at least another two or three weeks before we can look forward to a decline."

Liberia's defense minister reported to the United Nations Security Council that Ebola posed a mortal threat to the country.

"Liberia is facing a serious threat to its national existence. The deadly Ebola virus has caused a disruption of the normal functioning of our State," said Brownie Samukai, the Liberian Minister of National Defense.

The director of the WHO's department of pandemic and epidemic diseases, Sylvie Briand, said that the U.N. health organization is having severe difficulty compiling data on the number of cases of Ebola, not to mention containing the disease.

"We know that the numbers are under-estimated," she said during a news briefing in Geneva. "We are currently working to estimate the under-estimation.

"It's a war against this virus. It's a very difficult war. What we try now is to win some battles at least in some places."

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