Concerns over the Ebola virus continue with the United Nations (U.N.) warning that the outbreak must be stopped within 60 days or the world may be in a situation where it has no way to beat it.
Anthony Banbury, head of the U.N.'s Mission for Ebola Emergency Response, said the 60-day deadline was advised by the World Health Organization, which said 70 percent of infected people have to be in a care facility by this time and 70 percent of all burials have to be done without more people getting infected, according to Sky News.
The advised deadline comes as West Africa faces almost 9,000 cases of Ebola and 4,447 deaths from the virus.
Banbury told the UN Security Council about his concerns with current efforts aimed at treating the virus, saying he was "deeply, deeply worried" that they aren't enough to get the job done, The New York Post reported.
"Ebola got a head start on us," he said.
"It is far ahead of us, it is running faster than us and it is winning the race."
The U.N.'s discussion follows a claim from the WHO that Ebola can infect 10,000 people each week within the next two months, Sky News reported. WHO Assistant Director General Bruce Aylward said the total amount was expected to go over 9,000 by the end of this week, and that the virus's mortality rate has grown from 50 percent to 70 percent.
Banbury said Ebola can be beat if the 60-day deadline from Oct. 1st is met. He added, however, that new infections are making the deadline harder to meet.
"We either stop ebola now or we face an entirely unprecedented situation for which we do not have a plan," Banbury said.
Aylward said while there are signs of the rate of Ebola cases slowing down in northern Liberia and Guinea, the virus is something we have to "get to zero," Sky News reported.
"With a bit of change in the behavior of populations, with some burials happening safely, with a little bit more case management and a couple of new centres opening, you are going to slow this down very quickly," he said.
