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Plague Inc. spreads pulmonary fibrosis awareness through virtual contagion
Today is Pulmonary Fibrosis Awareness Day, a fact you might already be aware of if you've been playing Ndemic Creation's mobile game, Plague Inc. Ndemic first announced a team-up with the Pulmonary Fibrosis Foundation in June, but it wasn't until today that players started seeing an in-game news item which directs players to learn more about the condition. "This will be seen an estimated 9.8 million times in just two weeks - raising crucial awareness of this lung disease that has limited treatment options, no known cure, and kills someone every 13 minutes in the US alone," Plague Inc. creator James Vaughan wrote on the game's website. Vaughan told the Pulmonary Fibrosis Foundation in a special Q&A that although the game tends to "educate by accident," he believes that it will help players see that, "although Plague Inc. is a game – the diseases and symptoms it depicts are very real and that there is a lot of work needed to develop treatment and cures for them."
Plague Inc. developer agrees to speak with Centers for Disease Control
James Vaughan, the creator of the iOS disease-spreading hit Plague Inc., has agreed to speak to the actual Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, a US organization that deals with real viruses and other infectious outbreaks. "They reached out to contact me," Vaughan told Polygon recently. "It was something they were all playing, and they thought, 'Wow, this is pretty cool.'"Vaughan doesn't have any medical training; he started Plague Inc. as a hobby while working as an economic consultant. But he said he did make the game as "scientifically plausible as possible," and the CDC wants to speak with him not only to chat about infectious diseases, but how to best use games to educate and inform the public about real health issues.
