World Health Organization Says Ebola Criss 'Vastly Underestimated'

The World Health Organization announced Thursday that the numbers of those stricken with Ebola in West Africa may cause the international community to "vastly underestimate" the current health crisis at hand, adding that the West African countries should be prepared to deal with the Ebola outbreak for months onward.

The World Health Organization [WHO] announced Thursday that the current number of those killed by the virus may have been vastly underestimated. "The outbreak is expected to continue for some time," the WHO said in a statement Thursday.

"Staff at the outbreak sites see evidence that the numbers of reported cases and deaths vastly underestimate the magnitude of the outbreak."

Since the outbreak began in March 2014, 2,127 people in the West African countries of Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea have been infected with the deadly virus. Out of those infected, 1,145 have died of the disease, also known as hemorrhagic fever.

Recently, West African countries have received limited shipments of the experimental drug ZMapp, which had never been tested on humans until this most recent Ebola outbreak. The drug successfully helped improve the symptoms of two aid workers who had contracted the disease, and both the World Heath Organization and the United Nations said it would ethical to distribute the experimental drug to the African population.

Now, the WHO and the United Nations are faced with another crisis of determining who in Africa should be the first to receive ZMapp. Liberia's government initially said two doctors who had contracted the disease while treating patients would receive the drug, but it remains unclear who else will be lucky enough to be treated. Critics suggest that aid workers will be next in line to receive ZMapp doses.