CDC warns Ebola could swell to 20,000 cases in Central Africa without rapid containment

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released a new analysis indicating that the Ebola outbreak in Central Africa could expand to as many as 20,000 cases if infected individuals are not quickly isolated.

Computer models generated scenarios ranging from 10,000 to over 20,000 cases, a scale that would approach the magnitude of the 2014-2016 West Africa epidemic, which recorded more than 28,000 cases and over 11,000 deaths.

CDC officials and health experts warned that strong public-health interventions are essential to prevent such a trajectory, while noting that precise case numbers remain difficult to predict.