Ebola outbreak to get worse, says US official

Cape Town – The Ebola outbreak in West Africa is set to get worse, a top US public health official has reportedly said.

According to a BBC report, Tom Frieden, the director of the Centres for Disease Control, said the epidemic would need an "unprecedented" response to bring it under control.

Frieden said the world had never seen an outbreak like this, adding that figures had been underestimated, Al Jazeera added.

The report comes as the medical aid organisation Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) warned on Wednesday that the international response to the Ebola outbreak in West Africa was "chaotic and entirely inadequate".

According to a Sapa report, the MSF said it was unacceptable that serious discussions were only starting five months after the declaration of this Ebola outbreak.

The Ebola death toll across West Africa had risen to 1 552 by 28 August, according to the WHO, with 3 069 suspected or confirmed cases in the region.

Ebola causes massive haemorrhaging and has a fatality rate of up to 90%. The disease is transmitted through contact with blood and other bodily fluids.