About
Ebola-Chan is a female anime character designed as an anthropomorphic representation of the Ebola virus. The character was created on 4chan in response to growing concerns regarding the West African Ebola outbreak in the summer of 2014.
Origin
The original image of Ebola-Chan was created by a Pixiv user sly on August 4th, 2014[4]. The earliest archived appearance of Ebola-Chan on 4chan[1] was submitted in a thread posted to the /jp/ (Otaku culture) board on August 5th, 2014, featuring an illustration of a young female anime character wearing a nurse outfit, holding a bloody skull and wearing a pony tail hair style ending in strains of the Ebola virus (shown below).
Spread
As early as August 7th, an image macro began circulating on 4chan boards featuring the same anime character illustration accompanied by a caption referring to her as “Ebola-Chan,” which urged readers to reply with the phrase “I Love You Ebola-Chan” in the comments section to avoid contracting a painful, fatal disease (shown below).[3] On August 17th, the image was reblogged by the Cheezburger site Geek Universe.[5] On August 18th, 2014, Redditor EsportsLottery submitted the original Ebola-Chan illustration to the /r/WTF[2] subreddit, where it gained over 2,600 votes (87% upvoted) in the first week.
Various Examples
Search Interest
External References
[1]Warosu – is ebola kawaii?
[2]Reddit – Meet Ebola-Chan
[4]Pixiv – Original Image
[5]Cheezburger – I Love you Ebola Chan