Proper protective clothing for doctors and nurses is critical. All exposed skin must be covered with a material that cannot be penetrated by the virus. But the suit alone isn't enough: Proper procedure is also important.

Health care workers must practice correctly putting on a protective suit, as seen here at the special isolation unit in Dusseldorf. New suits are used every time, so there is no risk of infection when getting dressed. Unprotected workers are therefore able to help.

The patient rooms in the Dusseldorf isolation unit are completely shielded from the outside world. Air is filtered, and wastewater must go through a separate treatment process. The protective suits, used at all times in the ward, are kept at positive pressure. These measures go further than is necessary: While Ebola can be transmitted by contaminated objects, the virus is not airborne.

After the patient is treated, the entire suit is sprayed from the outside with a disinfectant to kill off any potential viruses. Only after this shower can the suit be removed - cautiously.

When removing the protective suit, health care workers must exercise extreme caution. Using permanently installed protective gloves, outside assistance can be provided without coming into direct contact with the suit. After use, the suit is immediately disposed of and burned.

Despite the high safety standards, a total of three nurses in Spain and the United States have contracted the disease. The circumstances surrounding the infection have not yet been clarified. The nurses' homes (as seen here in Texas) were sealed off and disinfected after the discovery of the transmission.

Doctors and nurses in West Africa have now also been outfitted with protective suits. However, these do not always meet the standards deemed necessary for effective protection. Sometimes, small areas of skin are left unprotected, or the material used in the suit is permeable. In addition, putting the suit on and removing it can be risky.

Extreme caution is also necessary at the funerals of people who have died of Ebola. A West African tradition, which sees the family of the deceased wash the body has led to many new infections. For mourning friends and family, these strict isolation measures are often hard to understand.

In a region where medical care is extremely underdeveloped, such an outbreak provides a daunting challenge. Infected people, like here in Liberia, are cared for in hastily constructed tents. But even a country like Germany would probably be overwhelmed by such an epidemic. At the moment, the country only has around 50 beds set up in isolation units.

In some of the affected West African regions, contaminated suits are hung out in the sun in an attempt to disinfect them for further use. But it's much safer to burn the clothing immediately after use, as seen here in Guinea. However, supply shortages and the high prices of suits make such advice difficult to follow. Protective clothing can cost between €30 and €200 ($40-$250).

Air travelers represent the biggest threat when it comes to transmission of the virus over long distances. For this reason, travelers' temperatures are now being monitored at some airports. However, this method does not provide absolute security: Ebola's incubation period is up to 21 days.

There are approximately 900 tick species across the world. The eight-legged crawlies are not insects, but rather belong to the Acari, which also include mites. They live in shrubs or grass and are just waiting for a bloody meal to walk past. The most common tick in Germany is the castor bean tick (Ixodes ricinus).

Ticks use their front legs and mouths to dig into their victim's skin. They pick spots where the skin is especially thin and the capillaries are right under the surface. The main part of their diet is not blood, however, but lymph, which leaks from the wound.

Many ticks transfer bacteria or viruses that can lead to serious illnesses. If you get bitten by a tick in Germany, you could contract Lyme disease or Encephalitis. But the small animals can also do good. Oxford researchers have recently found out that a protein from the tick's saliva can block infections, which makes it a potential cure for a certain type of heart disease.

Despite this discovery, ticks are still overwhelmingly negative. Elks, for example, suffer an increased number of ticks because of shorter and warmer winters in the eastern US. Last winter, 70 percent of elk calves there died - because they were sucked empty by ticks, according to researchers at the University of New Hampshire.

In Africa, birds and mammals work together to get rid of ticks. This yellow-billed oxpecker (Buphagus africanus) is eating the ticks off a warthog. It's a win-win: the warthog gets rid of the bloodsuckers and the bird gets a delicious meal.

Birds get ticks, too. The house finch has developed a strategy to fight ticks. A study in the Avian Biology journal has shown that breeding house finches use cigarette stubs to "proof" their nests. The nicotine wards off parasites, but sadly the neurotoxin can also have negative effects on the chicks.

There's currently no plan for getting rid of the ticks for good, and it wouldn't be an easy task either. The little parasites are quite robust and can survive a cycle in the washing machine as well as time in the freezer. If you have a tick bite, make sure your encephalitis vaccination is up-to-date.