Ebola is serious stuff. So when we saw a photo of Akon crowd surfing at a concert in Goma, Congo while encased in a plastic bubble we certainly assumed the five-time Grammy winner had sealed himself off so he wouldn't catch the deadly plague from infected hands.

So did everyone else, and that's why the picture -- which was actually taken two weeks ago -- has been circulating the web this afternoon.

No doubt Akon was pretty happy to be in the bubble, even if Congo hasn't had a recorded case of Ebola yet. (The disease has struck West Africa, whereas Congo is more toward the central part of the continent.) But Ebola isn't necessarily the reason he was in the bubble; Akon has whipped out the circular prop in other concerts far away from Africa, and going back to 2010.

Now if during his next US tour he only uses the bubble when he is in Dallas maybe then there would be something to the Ebola angle.