WASHINGTON, September 23. /ITAR-TASS/. The number of Ebola cases in West Africa may reach 1.4 million by January if no urgent measures to contain the deadly outbreak are taken, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said in a report on Tuesday.

“If conditions continue without scale-up of interventions, cases will continue to double approximately every 20 days, and the number of cases in West Africa will rapidly reach extraordinary levels,” the CDC said.

The CDC said that the number of cases was “significantly underreported” and reached some 20,000 in Liberia, Ebola and Sierra-Leone, according to its estimates.

The World Health Organization (WHO) said on Monday that the Ebola death toll had hit 2,800 while 5,800 people had been infected. The WHO also said that the outbreak response measures would cost at least $1 billion.