Medical staff escort a man, delirious in the final stages of Ebola, back into the isolation ward from which he had escaped, in Hastings, near the capital Freetown. The man had attempted to climb over the back wall of the complex, before collapsing in a convulsive state. A complete breakdown of mental facilities is a common stage of advanced Ebola. The man died shortly after this picture was taken.

A Red Cross burial team put on protective equipment, before entering the home of a woman who is suspected of having died from Ebola.

A Red Cross burial team, wearing protective equipment, take samples in the home of a woman who is suspected of having died from Ebola.

Residents of the town of Kailahun gather along a river at dusk. At the time, Kailahun district, in eastern Sierra Leone, was the most heavily affected by the Ebola outbreak, which originated across the nearby border with Guinea.

Family and community members pause for Islamic prayers over the body of a 27-year-old man.

Relatives of a man suspected of dying of Ebola look on as Red Cross workers remove his body. The bodies of people who have died from Ebola are highly contagious, and people are discouraged from touching the dead. This seriously affected traditional funeral ceremonies.

People wait beside the road after being denied passage through a quarantine checkpoint in eastern Sierra Leone.

Molai Kamara, about 12 years old, sits alone following a ceremony in which Ebola survivors were discharged from the Hastings Ebola Treatment Center. Around 55 survivors received food supplies, and boarded buses to return home, but Molai sat alone, still sick with other ailments and with nowhere to go. He had lost his entire family to the virus. While he eventually tested negative for Ebola, he continued to suffer from ulcers and had great difficulty walking. Later, Molai was transferred to a nearby hospital to receive additional care, while administrators searched for someone to look after him.

The Kabia family mourns as the body of their one-day-old baby is removed by a member of a safe burial team, outside their home in the Hill Cut neighborhood of Freetown. While the baby was not a confirmed Ebola case, the government of Sierra Leone had mandated that all deaths in heavily Ebola-affected districts be treated as potential Ebola cases and buried in accordance with strict safety procedures.

Gravediggers rest after a day of burials, at the King Tom cemetery, in the Sierra Leonean capital Freetown. King Tom was seeing an average of 40 burials a day.

Portraits,1st prize

Laurinda