No warning from WHO on ‘virus contaminated’ dates

PETALING JAYA: No warning had been issued by the World Health Organisation (WHO) or any middle eastern country on dates from Middle East being contaminated by coronavirus from bats, said the Health Ministry.

The ministry checked with the WHO on the information that went viral on social media and was informed that there was no such warning, said Health director-general Datuk Dr Noor Hisham in a statement.

According to the message that went viral, Middle East doctors from the health ministries had issued a warning to Muslims to wash dates thoroughly before eating them.

That was because there were a lot of bats this season lining the trees producing the dates and they carried the coronavirus, added the fake message.

Consumers concerned with health matters could contact the health district office or the nearest state health department on http://moh.spab.gov.my or www.facebook.com/bkkmhq.

At the Publish Asia 2017 last month, media experts said the “toxic spread of fake news” is making more people mistrust what they read on social media.

“They are starting to look for professional information, by professional outlets that make their living searching for accuracy using professional techniques and guided by ethical standards,” said World Editors Forum president Marcelo Rech.

Publish Asia is an annual mee­ting place of the Asian news media industry, created by the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers (WAN-Ifra) in 2000.

WAN-Ifra is the global organisation of the world’s newspapers and news publishers. It represents more than 18,000 publications, 15,000 online sites and more than 3,000 companies in over 120 countries.