In a dire, grim report by the World Health Organization released in the New England Journal of Medicine Monday, researchers estimate that the Ebola virus runs a serious risk of becoming endemic in West Africa and remain a constant presence on the continent. "The epidemiologic outlook is bleak," doctors in the report write.

Ebola continues to spread at an exponential rate in Africa, and if measures to prevent and treat the virus aren't ramped up and improved quickly, the continent faces more than 20,00 cases by November, researchers write.

The current death rate among the most heavily affected countries—Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone—WHO estimates, is about 70 percent. "The numbers of cases of and deaths from EVD are expected to continue increasing from hundreds to thousands per week in the coming months," the report reads.

While experimental treatments and vaccines are currently being tested (though not yet fully on humans), they might not be available for months.

An editorial released with the report criticizes the global response to the epidemic as "highly inadequate and late." President Obama announced last week that 3,000 troops would be dispatched to Africa to help combat the disease. From the Los Angeles Times:

Although the epidemic has already killed more people than all previous outbreaks combined, researchers said the virus now wreaking havoc on some of the world's poorest nations is no more lethal or virulent than other strains.

Instead, its rapid spread is due to "insufficient" control efforts, and a "large intermixing" population that has transported the virus across borders and between rural and urban areas.

http://gawker.com/u-s-to-send-up…

The editorial goes on to warn that if the virus does become endemic, there is "a very real danger of a complete breakdown in civic society" in West Africa. According to the report, to end the epidemic, "a massive increase in the response, way beyond what is being planned" would be required, and the rate of transmission of the virus in Africa would need to be cut in half—or 50 percent of the population would need to be vaccinated.

[Image via AP]