Ebola card game aims to raise awareness, prevent spread

A New Brunswick man is hoping a card game he created could help raise awareness about Ebola and prevent the spread of the deadly virus.

Fred Mundle, of Charlo, already has the prototype and copyright for the game, called Ebola Outbreak: Save the World.

Now, he's looking for a distributor.

"The big dream is yeah, OK, a manufacturer could pick it up," he said. "Perhaps there would be some funds forthcoming and perhaps,I'm OKwith the lion's share going to an Ebola research program."

Mundle, a retired teacher and artist, actually came up with the idea during a previous Ebola outbreak in the mid-1990s.

He had pitched the card game tosomebig producers, such as Parker Brothers, without success.

"I thought, 'OK, it's not happening.'"

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But when he heard about the current outbreak in West Africa,which has killed about 5,000 people,he saw it as an opportunity to try to help again, he said.

The idea is to educate people about Ebola andspark discussion among people who are playing the game.

There is also some information about the disease and contagiousness in the accompanying literature and guidebook.

Mundleis currently teaching family and friends how to play the game.

In each hand, the players are dealt cards displaying numbers and corresponding countries.

The goal of the game is to play the trump card.There are two trump cards: "Ebola" and "the cure". When a player lays down either of these cards during a hand, they win the hand.

The sum of all the cards played during that hand goes to the winner.

These points are added under the player's name on a score sheet. There are two tallies for each player.If they won with "Ebola", it goes towards their Ebola score.If they won with "the cure," it goes towards their cure score.

Once all cards have been dealt and played, the scores are tallied.

The highest score wins. If it is an "Ebola" score,then Ebola takes the world.If it is a cure score,then the winner saves the world, which iscalled a "true" win, Mundle said.