In the northwest suburbs of Minneapolis, home to tens of thousands of people of Liberian descent, a new group called the Minnesota African Task Force Against Ebola is blanketing neighborhoods with fliers. Their message: Stay away from West Africa for now.

“It is not helpful to travel when your travel will expose your community to harm and backlash,” said Abdullah Kiatamba, a member of the task force. “We’re telling people that, except in extreme circumstances, you can be more helpful to your family in Africa by sending them support, money, than by being there.”

Across the nation, communities with large concentrations of West African immigrants are stepping up education campaigns about Ebola that were already underway before it became known that a Liberian man in Dallas had the virus. At the same time, the immigrants say they are bracing for a public backlash now that the virus has reached the United States. And they are trying to avoid stoking unnecessary fear among immigrant families who have little chance of contracting the virus.

But fear has already taken hold in places like Southwest Philadelphia, where some West African immigrants are avoiding hugging or shaking hands with those who have recently spent time in their homelands, and Brooklyn Park, Minn., where Kellita Whisnant, a Liberian immigrant, said her West African restaurant has seen business plummet since the Ebola outbreak intensified over the summer. She taped a poster about Ebola near the cash register to help dispel myths and changed the name of her restaurant from Mama Ti’s African Kitchen to Mama Ti’s Kitchen and Deli. But it has not seemed to help.