If you’re going to worry about Ebola, worry about this.
NBC: "Liberia is in desperate need for body bags. Nearly 80,000 more, in fact, over the next six months."
That's how many lives the virus is expected to take in the West African country.
The World Health Organization is now concerned Ebola — which has so far killed 4,000 people — will become “endemic among the human population of West Africa, a prospect that has never previously been contemplated.”
The hardest-hit countries — Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea — are among the world's poorest. Many of the Ebola victims there lack even basic sanitation or running water, which is why the disease spreads so easily. (Video via Doctors Without Borders)
Liberia, on average, spends just $65 per person on health care. In the U.S., that number is $8,000.
The epidemic also has taken a major toll on the region's economies with foreign investments down, farmers leaving their fields and government resources drained.
The affected countries have called on the international community to pitch in, but the response so far has been slow to say the least.
Back in September, the United Nations appealed for $1 billion as part of an Ebola Trust Fund. As of Friday, the UN had received only $100,000 — just .01 percent of its fundraising goal.
That's only a little bit more than the GoFundMe page for Dallas nurse Nina Pham, which raised more than $87,000 in less than a week. So, where's the same sense of compassion for the African Ebola victims?
Probably lost somewhere in between talk of shutting down border, the potential for ISIS to use the virus as a weapon, and of course, commentary like this:
"You don't want us to panic? How about I don't want us to die! Tell us the truth for once!" (Video via CNN, Fox News)
Despite warnings from public health officials that the virus poses no significant threat stateside, a Harvard University study found a quarter of those surveyed worry a family member may contract Ebola within the next year.
