Mental illness and health in Sierra Leone affected by Ebola

had received some sort of compensatory kit consisting of a mattress, a 20 kg sack of rice and some clothes. Others received nothing. All had lost relatives or friends, some their entire family. As well as trying to cope with all of the loss, they are also now expected by UNICEF to contribute to the ¢ght by caring for children orphaned by Ebola.The problem is that these children have been so stigmatised, no person nor community wants to care for them. Many of the people who come forward to receive Ebola survivors congratulate them not with joy on their faces, but with an immense weariness. Recently, I heard of an entire, small rural community in Koinadugu that had £ed and sought refuge in the jungle, leaving the village completely deserted.They had abandoned their homes after a sample taken from a corpse was found to be positive.Who could be surprised when there is so little attention paid to increasing awareness and understanding of the disease, the measures taken to combat it and to counteract the endless rumours? Meanwhile, back in Europe youwould think rationality and scienti¢c evidence would dominate, but you also ¢nd the ‘travellers dance’ occurring here. If you are returning from an area labelled a risk region, such as Sierra Leone, you cannot go back to your regular job and have to remain under observation for three weeks, taking your temperature morning and afternoon with recommended moderate con¢nement to prevent febrile illness.When you ask expert epidemiologists, they con¢rm that Ebola can only spread at the time of massive viraemia,1 but you had better do the 21day quarantine ‘just in case’.