Liberia 'faces huge Ebola surge'

 Ebola is spreading exponentially in Liberia, with many thousands of new cases expected in next three weeks, the World Health Organization says

The death toll has passed 2,000 and shows every sign of getting worse

now killed more than all the others combined.

Healthcare workers are visibly struggling, the response to the outbreak has been damned as "lethally inadequate" and the situation is showing signs of getting considerably worse.

The outbreak has been running all year, but the latest in a stream of worrying statistics shows 40% of all the deaths have been in just the past three weeks.

So what can we expect in the months, and possibly years, to come?

Crystal-ball gazing can be a dangerous affair, particularly as this is uncharted territory.

Previous outbreaks have been rapidly contained, affecting just dozens of people; this one has already infected more than 3,900.

But the first clues are in the current data.

Dr Christopher Dye, the director of strategy in the office of the director general at the World Health Organization, has the difficult challenge of predicting what will happen next.

Man outside his home just outside the Liberian capital Monrovia

Up until a couple of weeks ago, the outbreak was raging in Liberia especially close to the epicentre of the outbreak in Lofa County and in the capital Monrovia.

However, the two other countries primarily hit by the outbreak, Sierra Leone and Guinea, had been relatively stable. Numbers of new cases were not falling, but they were not soaring either.

That is no longer true, with a surge in cases everywhere except some parts of rural Sierra Leone in the districts of Kenema and Kailahun.

"In most other areas, cases and deaths appear to be rising. That came as a shock to me," said Dr Dye.