Would You Cuddle Up with an Ebola Toy?

A Stamford-based company is producing an Ebola toy that is modeled after the deadly virus.

Giant Microbes, which is headquartered in Stamford, started producing toys in 2002 that are modeled after a number of microbes ranging from the Anthrax to Herpes.

The Ebola toy has been so popular that it is currently sold out and new orders won’t ship until Nov. 15. The company will donate a portion of the proceeds to Ebola crisis organizations.

The Ebola toy was created about ten years ago shortly after the company was founded, said Vice President of Marketing and Operations Laura Sullivan. There are more than 100 microbes in the line-up, she said. It is common for the company to experience a spike in sales when there are a lot of news reports about a disease outbreak.

“Swine Flu was a huge one that came on big and fast like this,” Sullivan said.

An outbreak of the Norovirus years ago also produced a spike in sales and there are smaller spikes when something like a recall due to E. Coli is performed, she said.

One benefit of the toys, especially for children is that it makes understanding the abstract world of microbes easier.

“We are being told by parents of children that Ebola is an abstract concept,” she said. “... it just helps make an abstract idea easier to grasp and it takes the scariness out of the topic.”

The toys can also be beneficial for students at the high school and college levels, especially when talking about a potentially sensitive topic like STDs.

“We know health education teachers use some of the other ones like STDs as an icebreaker to make kids talk about things,” she said. “Sometimes when it’s a fuzzy animal you can hold instead of a textbook, it facilitates a different kind of discussion.”

The company will donate a portion of sales to a charity that is dealing with the Ebola outbreak, Sullivan said. The company is still deciding on which charity will benefit.

Ebola Scare in Connecticut and Around the World

Connecticut had an Ebola scare last week when a Yale University medical student who had been in Liberia reported a slight fever last Wednesday. The student was taken to Yale-New Haven Hospital, but it was determined the student didn’t contract the Ebola virus. Many other states have experienced similar events.

There have been three confirmed cases of Ebola infections in the United States. Thomas Eric Duncan, a Liberian man, came back to the United States and died at a Dallas hospital. Two nurses that treated him contracted the disease as well.

There are an estimated 9915 cases of Ebola across the world, of which 5,481 are laboratory-confirmed, according to the CDC. There have been 4555 confirmed deaths. The vast majority are in the West African countries of Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea.

Image courtesy of Giant Microbes.

Related stories:

• Test Shows No Ebola in CT Patient Whose Condition Concerned Doctors
• Despite Unfounded Ebola Threat, Elm City Residents Remained Calm
• CT Reacts to Ebola-Like Symptoms Found at Yale
• Good Communication Facilitated Successful Transport of Yale Patient with Ebola-like Symptoms

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