ISIS And Ebola: Fighting Extremes At Imperial War Museum

Aside from their horrendous impacts on humanity, ISIS and Ebola have much in common — including the fact that the British armed forces have been deployed against both threats. That's the focus of this topical display coming on the heels of the Paris attacks and the news that Guinea may be soon be declared Ebola free.

There are pictures of troops helping out erecting medical tents in Sierra Leone, and also of them queuing up for temperature checks to ensure they are not infected — bringing home the risks these troops are taking.

On the other side of this small display is the battle against ISIS, with cut-out figures used to train the local Kurdish Peshmerga and a soldier's boots with ID tags attached — a precaution taken should his feet be blown off by an improvised explosive device (IED).

In the centre of this gallery are two helpful interactive timelines that set out how Ebola spread throughout Africa and how similarly ISIS has gained and lost ground — this includes their atrocities up to and including the recent attacks in Paris.

What our troops are doing abroad is admirable but we'd have liked to see some exploration of the grey areas, such as whether training foreign fighters is effective in the fight against ISIS — though this may be expecting a little too much from a one room display.

Fighting Extremes: From Ebola to ISIS is on at Imperial War Museum, Lambeth Road SE1 6HZ, until 13 November 2016. Entrance to the museum and this display is free, the museum is open every day 10am to 6pm.