The Ebola outbreak has gotten drastically out of hand and is spreading faster than ever — leading global health experts to believe they have only weeks to act before the epidemic rages completely out of control.
More than 700 new cases of the deadly virus have been reported just this week as the staggering number of deaths topped 2,600 people, the World Health Organization confirmed Thursday.
WHO is now predicting that as many as 20,000 people could become stricken with the viral infection in the future, HealthDay reports. Liberia, Sierra Leone, Guinea, Nigeria and Senegal have all reported cases of Ebola.
Liberia has been hit the hardest, with more than 1,450 total reported deaths there.
The plans to combat the world's worst outbreak of Ebola went into overdrive this week when President Obama announced a massive increase in US aid being sent to West Africa. He will dispatch 3,000 military personnel to attack the disease head on — both medically and logistically.
"It's a potential threat to global security if these countries break down," Obama said. "If the outbreak is not stopped now, we could be looking at hundreds of thousands of people affected, with profound economic, political and security implications for all of us."
Plans were unveiled Thursday in New York by the United Nations to launch a special mission involving the deployment of a military hospital to the forest region of southeastern Guinea, a remote area where the epidemic was detected in March, according to Reuters.
A letter sent to the council by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon outlined plans to establish an envoy to lead the UN Mission for Ebola Emergency Response.
"We are failing the sick because there is not enough help on the ground," he wrote.
"We are failing those who will inevitably become infected, because we cannot care properly for the sick in safe, protected environments and prevent the spread of the virus.
"We urgently need to get the disease under control, and we need your help," he said. "So please send your helicopters, your centers, your beds and your expert personnel."
Ki-moon went on to also express the region's dire need for assistance, begging the council not to turn a blind eye to their extreme struggle.
The fear of catching Ebola has become so intense in Nigeria that people are being asked by Catholic and Anglican churches to avoid receiving Communion wafers directly into their mouths and have urged them to have it placed inside their palms instead.
"Let us state clearly that the reception of communion-in-the hand neither affects the validity, sanctity, dignity and divinity of the Eucharist nor vitiates the full effects of this Sacrament on its recipients," the Archbishop of Lagos, Alfred Adewale Martins, said in a statement on Facebook.
In addition, worshipers have also been asked to quit shaking each other's hands – the appropriate rite of peace in West Africa – while attending church services, the Nigerian Tribune reports.
"Taking into consideration the fact that this rite is optional, we shall henceforth omit it i.e. not invite people to offer the sign of peace," Martins added. "When you get to this rite, skip it."
To make things even worse, a black market for Ebola survivors' blood has arisen in West Africa, WHO warns.
Desperate victims of the lethal virus are procuring blood through illicit trading in order to create a "convalescent serum," a protein base of blood gathered from survivors that contains antibodies that fight Ebola.
It was reported last week that infected US health worker Rick Sacra had been receiving blood from Dr. Kent Brantly, who survived Ebola after treatment in Atlanta.
The increase in the black-market trade comes as hospitals in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone are rapidly using up their supplies amid what WHO calls the deadliest Ebola outbreak in history.
A familiar face to the Ebola outbreak has been Dr. Kent Brantly – an American missionary who survived the virus and continues to do his part in treating it.
Speaking to Senators on Tuesday, he spoke of a grave situation in West Africa which needed to be addressed before it's too late.
"We can't afford to wait months, or even weeks, to take action, to put people on the ground," he said. "Many have used the analogy of a fire burning out of control to describe this unprecedented Ebola outbreak. Indeed it is a fire – a fire straight from the pit of hell."
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