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Living in the shadow of Ebola

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As West African nations try to stop the deadly Ebola virus from spreading, people living in the affected countries are nervous. In Sierra Leone, communities are keeping a close eye on the exact locations where the disease has emerged.

The posters are crudely drawn and graphic. There's one pasted to the wall of the squat, concrete community centre in Kroo Bay, a slum in the centre of the capital Freetown, the kind of place where you can imagine disease spreading fast.

The houses are built of breeze block and have battered, rusting roofs. The spaces between them are piled with garbage, small children with no shoes tote yellow plastic jerry cans of water through the narrow lanes.

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bbc.com - by Tim Mansel - August 2, 2014

A Red Cross team has been going door to door in Kailahun province, the border region where Ebola first arrived in Sierra Leone.

They were on what's known as a sensitisation mission, explaining to people exactly how the virus spreads and how to avoid it.

There are three simple rules . . .

Rule one: If you've got a headache or a fever, go to the health centre for a test. You can recover from Ebola if the infection is spotted early enough.

Rule two: If someone dies, don't touch the body. It's highly infectious. Don't wipe the mouth, don't close the eyes.

Rule three: Don't eat bushmeat, the meat of wild animals.

The underlying message was this - Ebola is manageable. It's deadly and frightening but if you follow the three rules and use a lot of soap and water, you probably won't get sick. And if you do, even though the death rate is high, there are survivors.

http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-28583051

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