Ebola-chan

The meme's spread has been considered racist and has been attributed to increased mistrust between West Africans and medical professionals.

[2][3] The epidemic would go on to receive widespread, world-wide media coverage, with increased public awareness and concern over the virus and its transmission.

[7] These images would include makeshift shrines and allusions to death cults, blood sacrifices, and demon worship.

[8] On October 9, 2014, a man walking his dog in East Longmeadow, Massachusetts found an altar containing an image of Ebola-chan.

Accompanying this was a carved wooden mask, an unlit candle, Christmas decorations, sheets of paper with incomprehensible writing and symbols, and a bowl of rice mixed with twigs and fake blood.

The police investigating the shrine believe it was connected to a recent total lunar eclipse, or a blood moon.

During the height of the outbreak, aid workers reported they faced mistrust and misinformation in affected communities, with many West Africans believing that the disease was the work of 'sorcerers'.