Safe Burial
What is a Safe Burial?
During any Ebola outbreak, all dead bodies are considered potentially infectious, and are tested post-mortem for the disease. The bodies of people who die from Ebola are highly infectious, so strict infection prevention and control is necessary. Burial teams tasked with picking up bodies from homes and villages are required to wear personal protective gear. In the case of an ETU death, the hospital hygiene team takes the body to the morgue until time for burial.
However, these strict procedures don't account for cultural and religious customs. In the West African epidemic, they were later adapted to allow family members and communities more opportunities to participate in burial rituals without risking exposure to Ebola.
This visual aid provides instructions for what to do when someone dies at home to follow prevention protocol.
Allow for Safe Burial When Someone Dies at Home visual aid. Produced by CDC's Division of Creative Services
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Carol Rao
Carol Rao, deployed twice to Sierra Leone, first as an infection prevention specialist, then as a regulatory liaison for STRIVE, describes her experience accompanying a burial team in Sierra Leone. (Transcript)
Burial Teams in Liberia and Sierra Leone
Patrick Bassie with burial team members at a children’s hospital in Freetown, Sierra Leone, June 2015. Photograph by Andrew McConnell, Concern Worldwide
Burial team in Sierra Leone carrying a body out of a home, June 2015. Photograph by Michael Duff, Concern Worldwide
Removing a body from the Bong County Ebola treatment unit, run by International Medical Corps with support and funding from USAID, October 2014. Photograph by Morgana Wingard, USAID
Liberian Red Cross team removing the body of a suspected Ebola fatality in the Bushrod Island area of Monrovia, November 2014. Photograph by Victor Lacken, IFRC
Burial team preparing to transport the bodies of eight children from a children’s hospital in Freetown, Sierra Leone. Photograph by Andrew McConnell, Concern Worldwide
Members of a Liberian Red Cross Safe & Dignified Burials (SDB) team remove the body of a suspected Ebola fatality from his home in Paynesville, Liberia, November 2014. Photograph by Victor Lacken, IFRC
Burial team burying a body in the Disco Hill Safe Burial Site, Margibi County, Liberia, March 2015. Courtesy of Global Communities. Courtesy of Global Communities
Burial team being hosed off with chlorine at Waterloo Cemetery, Freetown, Sierra Leone after burying a body, May 2015. Photograph by Andrew McConnell, Concern Worldwide
Safe and Dignified Medical Burials, March 2015
Produced by SMAC
Mohamed S. Kamara, Safe Burial Team Leader with the Sierra Leone Red Cross Society, takes us through the steps and rules of a safe and dignified burial.