Ebola 'Caused by Red Cross' and Other Conspiracy Theories

The World Health Organization (WHO) has said that the Ebola outbreak, the worst in history, has killed more than 4,000 people in West Africa since last January.

The deadly virus is contracted by contact with infected bodily fluids and its symptoms include fever, diarrhoea, vomiting, stomach and chest pain.

The disease, dubbed by some "the new Aids", is causing growing concern worldwide, as hundreds of people are dying every day.

While health workers are struggling to contain the outbreak, conspiracy theories about the deadly pandemic are proliferating on the internet, with people deeming the virus a creation of the West to annihilate Africans or as the result of bioterrorism activities.

Ebola 'Caused by Red Cross'

The latest of these theories involves a Ghanaian man who claims the virus does not exist and that people are dying after they receive vaccinations by the Red Cross.

News website the Event Chronicle republished the post allegedly written by Nana Kwame, from Ghana's capital Accra, who claimed that the deadly virus is just an invention and "people in the Western World need to know what's happening here in West Africa.

"Ebola it is only contracted by those who receive treatments and injections from the Red Cross, the post said, adding that the virus "was invented" to allow western troops on African soil.

"Last but not least, the APPEARANCE of this Ebola 'pandemic' will be used to scare the countless millions into taking an 'Ebola vaccine' which in reality is the pandemic," the post continued.

"Hundreds of thousands have been killed, paralysed and disabled by these and other 'new' vaccines all over the world and we are finally becoming aware of it. Now what will we do with all this information?" the post concluded.

Ebola Meme

Another theory has blamed Western countries for creating Ebola, after an image representing the personification of Ebola went viral.

The image, or meme – a cultural symbol or idea represented by a video, an image or a text shared on the internet – was created on imageboard website 4chan in August.

It shows a white lady, named Ebola-Chan, in a nurse's outfit holding a bloody skull. Her hair ends in what are supposed to be Ebola virus strains.

Along with the image a tagline urges people to write below the picture "I love you Ebola-Chan" if they want to ward off the virus.

The meme found its way onto a Nigerian forum, where people started claiming that Europe and America "hate Africans and worship an Ebola demoness who they call "Ebola-Chan". Rumours involved the countries "performing magical rituals in order to spread the disease and kill people" and "targeting the area they want to infect next using blood sacrifices."

"Apparently even some Ebola doctors are part of the cult and instead of treating the disease are deliberately spreading it", one forum user wrote.

Ebola is 'Result of Bioterrorism'

A Liberian-born faculty member of a US university wrote an article on Liberian newspaper, the Daily Observer, claiming that Ebola is the result of bioterrorism experiments conducted by the US.

Dr Cyril Broderick claimed, among other things, that "sites around Africa, and in west Africa, have over the years been set up for testing emerging diseases, especially Ebola.

"WHO and several other UN Agencies have been implicated in selecting and enticing African countries to participate in the testing events, promoting vaccinations, but pursuing various testing regiments," he continued.

"Reports narrate stories of the US Department of Defense (DoD) funding Ebola trials on humans, trials which started just weeks before the Ebola outbreak in Guinea and Sierra Leone.

Ebola is a Form 'of Population Control'

Singer Chris Brown sparked controversy after he declared on Twitter that he believes the virus is a form of "population control".

Brown's tweet followed a comment by American lawyer Phyllis Schlafly, who said that US President Barack Obama purposefully allowed Ebola to enter the US so the country would be more like Africa.