Health Minister K.K. Shylaja’s warning against spreading unscientific messages on the social media against the backdrop of Nipah virus infection deaths in Kozhikode district does not seem to have made any impact. Messages and notes, put up by self-made health practitioners and naturopaths, continued to flood Facebook and WhatsApp in the past few days.
One FB video alleged that efforts were being made by the “drug mafia” to create panic among the people. “It is being propagated that this particular infection is spread by a virus and the host is fruit-eating bats. A campaign like this is enough to create hostility against naturopaths who promote fruits as safe diet,” the video by a well-known ‘naturopath’ claims. He says dengue fever was not being spread by mosquitoes and leptospirosis was not spread by rats.
However, this has not gone down well with the medical community. Jinesh P.S., medical professional and admin of Infoclinic FB page, which has been in the forefront of the campaign against unscientific medical practices, urged “naturopaths and acupuncture specialists” to refrain from posting messages that might trigger panic. Akhil Chalil, a Government Medical College, Kozhikode, student sent a letter to Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, urging him to take action against those “spreading lies in society.” The SFI Medicos unit at the college submitted a petition to Health Minister K.K. Shylaja and District Collector U.V. Jose.