Ebola: Cremation precaution defies West African tradition

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Oct 28, 2014

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Ebola: Cremation precaution defies West African tradition

Cremation is one of the ways to contain the Ebola outbreak, but the practice runs counter to West African tradition. This poses a challenge for health workers whose job is to collect bodies.

File: A member of a burial team disinfects his hands after collecting the body of an Ebola victim for cremation on October 2, 2014 in Monrovia, Liberia.

Cremation is one of the ways to contain the Ebola outbreak, but the practice runs counter to West African tradition. This poses a challenge for health workers whose job is to collect bodies.

One of the keys to containing the Ebola outbreak is proper disposal of the dead.

That means cremation. But cremation runs counter to West African tradition.

And that poses a challenge for health workers whose job is to collect bodies.

From Monrovia, Liberia, the BBC's Gabriel Gatehouse reports.