Ebola Facts website goes, er, viral

ebolaAs the Ebola health crisis deepens and is not expected to peak until the end of the year, education about the disease is critical to contain panic and inform people.

Last week Nigerian educational website launched Ebola Facts, a site that was built in 24 hours and aimed at educating the West African market about the disease. In the past week more than 1.5 million people have visited the site and the Facebook site has been viewed 2.3 million times.

Curated by Lagos-based Big Cabal Media and in English, Ebola Facts lays out in simple terms what the virus is and how transmission occurs. It also dispels the myths about the disease and content from the site has transferred to print flyers, newspaper ads and digital billboards. Work is now ongoing to translate the site to French, Swahili, Yoruba, Igbo, Hausa and Pidgin to cater to a growing regional audience.

“With the launch of Ebola Facts, we’re tackling an age-old problem of containing a deadly virus with 21st Century technology. It was designed to be easily accessible, on all tech platforms – mobile being the Number One platform here on the continent – and, importantly, free.

“We’ve also been contacted by government officials and medical professionals who are excited about the fact that young Africans are finding new and innovative ways of reaching out to as many people as possible to help save lives,” said Dr. Seyi Taylor of Big Cabal Media.

As the front page of the site says:

Ebola is a very scary disease.
It kills most of the time and has no cure.

The good news is that you don’t have to get it.
Here’s what you need to know.

Monty (709 Posts)

Monty Munford has more than 15 years' experience in mobile, digital media, web and journalism. He is the founder of Mob76, a company that helps tech companies raise money and exit. He speaks regularly at global media events with a focus on Africa, writes a weekly column for The Telegraph, is a regular contributor to The Economist, Wired, Mashable and speaks regularly on the BBC World Service.