What's it like to be in a country where a highly infectious disease is killing people by the thousands, and spreading so quickly that efforts to stop it just can't keep up?

Holly Taylor is 26 and in Sierra Leone as part of her work for Oxfam.

The country is one of the worst affected by the Ebola outbreak, and over the next five days Holly will be telling Newsbeat about what she sees.

Holly's story: Day one

"What really struck me is how normal everything is here, compared to how I imagined it.

"I guess I imagined everyone would be indoors, there would be people in protective clothing walking around the streets, but that's not what its like.

"People are still out on the streets and still holding markets - and that's because Sierra Leone has had Ebola for six months.

"You can't stay at home for six months, you need to go out and work, you need to make sure you have food on the table."

"I guess that's scary because the woman who serves you in the shop might be living with someone who has Ebola.

"But you don't know that, and you're interacting with her.

"Ebola's everywhere but you can't really see it."

Holly describes her six hour car journey to Kabala, a town in the Koinadugu district in the north of the country.

She's wearing a long sleeved top because Ebola's spread by direct contact.

"If someone touches you and you've got clothes on you are at far, far less risk."

On the way the car is frequently stopped at Ebola checkpoints where passengers have their temperatures taken.

This is what would happen if Holly had a high temperature.

"You'd be made to stay where you were and then they'd call the Ebola ambulance and they'd treat you as an Ebola patient.

"That's quite a scary thought.

"What if you just had a temperature and not Ebola and you were put in an ambulance with other people with Ebola?"

Holly heard about a mother who was put in an isolation unit with Ebola patients because she had a fever.

She had a baby there.

The test results came back negative for Ebola, but now the mother and child are at high risk.

Arriving in Kabala, Holly meets Doris, an Oxfam worker based there.

The district worked hard to remain free of Ebola for six months, and then two weeks ago the first case was discovered.

The patient died on the long journey to hospital.

Now there are five known Ebola cases in Kabala.

"When you hear about these stories it makes you feel so sad and so frustrated," says Holly.

Sierra Leone is one of the countries hardest hit by the Ebola outbreak. To date, 1,259 people have died from the disease there.

"But it's kind of amazing that despite being in crisis the people of Sierra Leone are just staying really really calm.

"I guess beneath that calm they must be really worried."

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