Authorities warn that cases of Ebola in western Africa seem to be on the rise, not the wane, with 40 percent of all known cases having been reported in just the last 20 days.

There are now over three thousand known cases of Ebola, most in the several nations of western Africa. So far, 1,552 people have died from the infection.

“I wish I didn’t have to say this, but it is going get worse before it gets better,” Dr. Tom Frieden, the director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said during an August 21 press conference.

Dr. Frieden said the spiraling problem was dire.

The situation is made worse by the fact that many Africans in far-flung, rural areas fear health officials and won’t bring sick loved ones to the cities for help. Authorities feel that many hundreds more cases are raging unchecked and unknown out in the African bush country.

Since early in August flights in and out of the stricken areas in Africa have been stopped, and the area has been isolated as much as possible in this interconnected world in which we live.

In the US the Ebola scare hit hard early in August as patients across the nation were tested for the virus. But even as the testing was being done, information on who and where these tests were being carried out was seemingly suppressed by US authorities.

The fear of the virus has even hit US colleges, many of whom have decided to put a close watch on any student coming from the African continent.

On Friday it was reported that several US schools will start screening students for Ebola. Those colleges include the University of Illinois; the University at Buffalo; Mercer University in Macon, Georgia; Liberty University in Lynchburg, Virginia; and the University of Akron in Ohio, among others.

Follow Warner Todd Huston on Twitter @warnerthuston or email the author at igcolonel@hotmail.com