Concern's public education banner displayed on a truck in Sierra Leone. Photo: Charlie Donnelly

If you go into a clinic, you’ll be given an injection to speed your death. Routine blood tests and school vaccinations are a campaign to infect children with Ebola. Ebola can be cured by home remedies, like a mixture of hot chocolate, coffee, milk, raw onions, and sugar. Governments have fabricated the Ebola scare to deflect attention from scandals or depopulate rebellious provinces. Health personnel and NGO staff are the ones spreading the disease. Body parts are being harvested in the isolation units. Ebola isn’t real.

Why do they matter?

Rampant fear and distrust of health authorities results in symptomatic patients refusing to seek treatment and those who already have been diagnosed fleeing isolation wards and spreading the disease. Myth and misinformation are preventing people from following simple safety precautions that could save their lives.

The size of this outbreak is unprecedented and, as yet, it shows no signs of slowing down. The only ways to stop ebola are to build trust and fight bad information with good.

How are we busting these myths?

Concern staff go door-to-door to raise awareness about Ebola in Magbass village, Sierra Leone. Photo:Stephen Douglas

We’ve been working in Sierra Leone and Liberia – two countries at the center of the outbreak – for decades. Now we’re drawing on our extensive community outreach and social mobilisation experience to educate the public about how they can keep themselves safe from Ebola. We’re distributing thousands of leaflets and posters, airing radio messages and training healthcare workers, village leaders, traditional healers, and traditional birth attendants. And we’re providing clinics with critical supplies and logistical assistance to help keep them running.

Ibrahim Kiss-Turay used his Concern training to handle a potential Ebola case in his community in Freetown, Sierra Leone. Photo: Khadijatu Kamara