GENEVA, Oct. 14 -- Ebola cases reported in West Africa was keeping on rising as the World Health Organization (WHO) on Tuesday warned that the Ebola epidemic could reach 5,000 to 10,000 cases per week by the first week of December.

"This health crisis we face is unparalleled in modern times. The gravity of the situation is difficult to get across with just a few numbers," the WHO's assistant director-general Bruce Aylward told a press conference in Geneva on Tuesday.

"The disease is entrenched in the capitals, 70 percent of the people affected are definitely dying from this disease, and it is accelerating in almost all of the settings," he said.

As of Tuesday, the total number of cases attributed to Ebola virus disease in West Africa has reached 8,914, including 4,447 deaths.p A 56-year-old Ebola-infected patient who was being treated in German city Leipzig has died in the early hours of Tuesday.

U.S. President Barack Obama will hold a video conference on Wednesday with British, French, German, and Italian leaders to discuss the Ebola epidemic in West Africa, the White House said Tuesday.

EFFORTS TO COMBAT EBOLA EPIDEMIC

The U.S. created an Ebola response team on Tuesday that is able to reach any U.S. hospital with a confirmed Ebola patient "within hours."

"I have been hearing loud and clear from health care workers around the country that they are worried, that they don't well prepared to take care of a patient with Ebola," the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)'s director Tom Frieden told a teleconference Tuesday.

Eastern and Central African countries also plan joint efforts to control Ebola spread, according to a statement issued in Tanzania's commercial capital Dar es Salaam.

"The three regions will work together in planning, coordination and resource mobilization under the auspice of the East African Community's (EAC) Secretariat," said the statement.

According to the proposed plan of action, countries in the regions, would work together in ensuring strong surveillance of the disease and strengthening of laboratory facilities to improve Ebola diagnostic capacity.

Public awareness will also be undertaken to make sure that the public get correct, timely, specific and relevant information regarding the disease and its preventive measures, said the statement.

HUMAN TESTING STARTS

Canadian Minister of Health Rona Ambrose Tuesday announced the launch of Phase 1 clinical trials in human for Canada's Ebola vaccine (VSV-EBOV) at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research in Silver Spring, the U.S. state of Maryland.

The Phase 1 clinical trial will test the vaccine on a small group of people to determine whether the vaccine is safe and the appropriate dose necessary to provide immunity, said Ambrose in a press release.

The vaccine, developed by scientists with the Public Health Agency of Canada's National Microbiology Laboratory and licensed to NewLink Genetics, has shown great promise in animal research, Ambrose claimed, saying the vaccine could be an important tool in helping to control the ongoing Ebola outbreak in West Africa.

The results of the study are expected in December.