Health and Wellness

CDC Debunks Health-Related Hoaxes

Internet gossip has become so powerful that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has created a place on its web site to debunk health-related hoaxes and rumors. The site is located at www.cdc.gov/hoax_rumors.htm.

Among the stories that CDC has checked out and declared to be WITHOUT MERIT are:

• An e-mail that claims people are getting the Klingerman viral infection after handling a sponge contained in a gift package delivered to them in the mail. There is no such thing as the “Klingerman virus,” CDC said.
• A Weekly World News report that CDC has discovered a mutated version of HIV that is transmitted through the air. CDC said no study has ever shown that HIV can be transmitted through air, water, insects or casual contact.
• Internet reports about people getting stuck by HIV-infected needles in phone booth coin returns, movie theater seats, gas pump handles, vending machines, etc. The majority of these reports have no foundation in fact, and CDC has never tested such needles for HIV.
• An Internet report that Costa Rican bananas cause the disease necrotizing fasciitis, which is a real illness but not believed to be transmitted by food.