Two physicians felled by Ebola to be memorialized in Rose Parade float

An organization devoted to fighting one disease that has ravaged Africa plans to spotlight the battle against another health threat to that continent by memorializing two doctors who died in the Ebola battle.

The AIDS Healthcare Foundation, the largest provider of HIV/AIDS medical care in the U.S., is undertaking two marketing efforts to draw attention to the Ebola crisis in West Africa.

The Los Angeles-based organization has placed ads on four billboards in the greater Los Angeles area that feature the climbing Ebola death toll in Africa. It also will sponsor an Ebola-themed float in the upcoming Rose Bowl parade in Pasadena, Calif.

The billboards feature the tagline, “Lest we forget, 6,914 Ebola deaths in Africa,” with a picture of death toll ticker appears to be rolling over to a higher number. That number was current when the billboard design was created; the death toll now stands at nearly 7,700.

Organizers also will have a float for the annual Tournament of Roses Parade Jan. 1 to commemorate healthcare workers fighting Ebola in West Africa. The float will feature floral portraits of AHF physician Dr. Sheik Humarr Khan and Dr. John Taban Dada, both leading physicians who died of Ebola while fighting the virus. Khan, who was AHF's Sierra Leone medical officer, was leading the country's fight against Ebola before he died. Dada worked with an AHF partner organization that treats HIV patients.

Four surviving siblings of Khan will ride the float in memory of their brother.

It also will feature a 17-foot rotating heart made up of 25,000 red roses and an 8-foot-wide floral globe, which the organization says symbolizes that the entire world is under threat of Ebola.

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