Frieden emphasized how quickly the situation is changing in West Africa. CDC head: Ebola could be next AIDS

The head of the Centers for Disease Control is comparing the Ebola epidemic in West Africa to a different epidemic the world first saw some three decades ago: AIDS.

In remarks Thursday before the World Bank and International Monetary Fund, CDC Director Tom Frieden emphasized how quickly the situation with Ebola is changing in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea.


“In the 30 years I’ve been working in public health, the only thing like this has been AIDS,” Frieden said. “We have to work now so this is not the world’s next AIDS.”

The meeting in Washington also heard United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon call for a “20-fold” increase in the international community’s financial commitment to battling Ebola in the three countries, which have officially recorded 8,011 cases and 3,857 deaths to date. A new economic assessment issued Wednesday by the World Bank Group warned that if the virus continues to surge there, and then spreads to neighboring countries, “the two-year regional financial impact could reach $32.6 billion by the end of 2015.”

( Also on POLITICO: House moves on Ebola funding)

On Capitol Hill, House Republicans signed off Thursday on the release of $700 million more in funding requested by the Obama administration to help West Africa fight the Ebola outbreak.

U.S. public health officials are reporting no new suspected cases in the wake of Liberian national Thomas Eric Duncan’s death in Dallas on Wednesday.

Tests came back negative for a Dallas County sheriff’s deputy who had been briefly inside the apartment where Duncan was staying with relatives. State Health Commissioner David Lakey had termed the risk “extremely low” in a release earlier in the day. “But we want to err on the side of caution,” he said. “We understand there’s a lot of anxiety in the community, and we hope getting test results back will help calm those fears.”

The deputy is the third person tested for Ebola by the state public health laboratory in Austin, according to the Texas health department. In addition to Duncan, a patient in the Houston area was tested.

Duncan, who was infected with Ebola before flying from Liberia on Sept. 19, remains the only person to be diagnosed with the disease in the United States. Four dozen people who had direct or indirect contact with him after he arrived in Dallas continue to be monitored for potential symptoms. As of Thursday afternoon, all were healthy, with no signs of potential illness, public health officials said.