Committee to Reduce Infection Deaths Founder Betsy McCaughey on growing concern that bureaucrats and hospitals aren’t equipped to contain the Ebola virus. Photo: Getty Images

THE countdown is officially on.

The UN has warned the world has just 60 days to get Ebola under control, or face an “unprecedented situation for which we don’t have a plan”.

A new report issued by the organisation’s health arm, the World Health Organisation, says the virus “is running faster than us and it is winning the race” as it sweeps West Africa and has begun to make its way across the globe.

Speaking at the UN Security Council yesterday, the UN’s deputy Ebola co-ordinator Anthony Banbury outlined critical goals for the December deadline.

“The WHO advises within 60 days we must ensure 70 per cent of infected people are in a care facility and 70 per cent of burials are done without causing further infection,” he said.

It’s the first time the UN has created a mission in response to a public health crisis, warning the goals must be completed or “a lot more people will die”.

Banbury said he was “deeply, deeply concerned” that all of the efforts so far won’t be enough to stop the outbreak.

The warning comes as the number of cases of Ebola has hit the 9000 mark, the deadly virus killing more than half it has affected.

The World Health Organisation says West Africa could see up to 10,000 new Ebola cases a week within two months if the outbreak is not adequately contained.

For the last four weeks, there have been about 1000 new cases per week — including suspected, confirmed and probable cases, he said, adding that the UN health agency is aiming to get 70 per cent of cases isolated within two months to reverse the outbreak.

NEW US DIAGNOSES

While containing the disease in Ebola-stricken West African countries is the priority, the stern warning comes as a second US nurse has been diagnosed with the disease.

The woman, who treated America’s first Ebola victim Thomas Eric Duncan, is the third person to receive a diagnosis in the US following another nurse, Nina Pham, who had also treated the victim.

The second nurse’s diagnoses has sparked fears of further spreading as it is revealed she flew across the country’s Midwest aboard a commercial flight the day before she was diagnosed.

The nurse did not present until a fever until the following day, but should not have travelled following being in contact with the victim, authorities have warned.

CDC director Tom Frieden has now warned no one else involved in Duncan’s care will be allowed to travel “other than in a controlled environment”.

The second nurse will be transferred to a special bio-containment unit at Emory University Hospital in Atlanta, where other Ebola patients have been successfully treated, Frieden said.

Spanish nurse Teresa Romero is thought to have caught Ebola while treating an elderly missionary in Sierra Leone.

Australia has so far managed to remain unaffected, with the closest call coming last week when a Queensland nurse who had returned from treating patients in an Ebola hospital in Sierra Leone.

Testing negative to the disease, Sue Ellen Kovack joined the ranks of 11 people tested for the disease in Australia in recent weeks, all returning negative results.

WORLDWIDE CONCERN

US President Barack Obama has cancelled a trip to New Jersey to address the Ebola crisis, while a conference call between British, US, French, German and Italian leaders agreed the epidemic is “the most serious international public health emergency in recent years”.

“Leaders agree ... that the international community needed to do much more and faster to halt the rise of the disease in the region,” the office of British Prime Minister David Cameron said.

WHAT WE’RE DOING

Prime Minister Tony Abbott has defended his government’s decision not to send Australian health workers to Ebola-ravaged west Africa.

He’s praised the “selfless humanitarianism” of non-government organisations who have sent volunteers to the region, but says there’s a world of difference between volunteering and being forced to tackle the deadly epidemic.

The Australian government has contributed $18 million for equipment and supplies in west Africa since the Ebola outbreak.

“That’s the kind of practical response we are providing but I am not putting at risk the lives of health workers,” foreign minister Julie Bishop said last week.

Among donations and promises for help worldwide, the US has pledged $750 million to fund a six-month mission to fight Ebola in West Africa, while the Pentagon has authorised sending up to 3,900 troops to set up Ebola clinics and train local staff.

The European Commission has pledged $228 million and the International Monetary Fund has approved $130 million to be send to the three hardest-hit countries.

In the US, Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg announced a $25 million donation to the US Centers for Disease Control Foundation to help contain the epidemic, while the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation said it would contribute $50 million to the emergency response, the group’s largest donation to a humanitarian crisis.