The Pepsi employee added. Fake news about getting HIV by eating a banana and drinking Pepsi. HIV does not live long in the air

Probably only the lazy have not heard the news about bananas and Pepsi with HIV infection. Social networks are periodically replete with photographs of bloody fruits that carry a mortal threat. Why and where do such messages come from? An attempt to induce panic and pathological fear of the author - terrible diseases are pursued at every turn. HIV is probably breaking records for the number of horror stories, myths and sensational but false news.

The first “sensation” about bananas filled with HIV-infected blood appeared back in 2014. The text stated that the shipment of fruit had arrived from South Africa. The fruits were intended for the population of European countries, for the purpose of specifically infecting HIV with bananas. The panic caused by such news reached such proportions that the state Ministry of Health had to reassure the citizens of one of the CIS countries.

After the stories with bananas, news began to appear about infected oranges: infected blood was injected into the fruit using a syringe. Accusations against countries supplying the world with oranges almost led to an international scandal.

Fortunately, not all people are gullible, like social network users who leave thousands of comments on posts about “speed fruits.”

The level of awareness and literacy of the population regarding HIV is extremely low, given the massive reaction to absurd rumors. In addition to rumors about contaminated fruit, they periodically appear in movie theater seats and escalator handles; sale in pharmacies of tablets with a wire containing the virus; about a food service worker who added his HIV-tainted blood to Pepsi. The latter tale has recently excited youth in different countries of the world. Allegedly, Pepsi, contaminated with AIDS, is now sold in fast foods and stores, and, naturally, its use is prohibited. The transfer of information from one little-informed person to another, less educated, led to another fact - in addition to Pepsi, HIV “got into” almost all carbonated drinks, juices and mineral water.

The story with Pepsi is most likely the machinations of competitors, because anti-advertising, one way or another, influenced sales of the drink. Pepsico had to call on doctors and publicly prove to the world that HIV cannot be transmitted through soda. The sources of other fake horror stories have not been reliably discovered, but psychologists believe that such news is spread by people with HIV infection so as not to endure their grief alone. Another option for the emergence of sensations related to AIDS is something like a psychological experiment - how people will react to some socially significant issue, a kind of way to “sway the crowd.”

Can you get infected with HIV by eating or drinking something with blood in it?

Although HIV is a terrible and incurable disease, its weak side is... The virus exists and multiplies exclusively in the biological fluids of the host body. A retrovirus is in no way capable of living in a banana or Pepsi. It is worth noting the following fact - the blood itself is destroyed under the influence of acids contained in fruits. If, purely hypothetically, we consume bananas and Pepsi with HIV-infected blood, then starting from the oral cavity under the influence of salivary enzymes, and then in the acidic environment of gastric juice, it is completely destroyed along with the viruses contained in it.

The message goes like this:

I received information from friends, be careful and careful!

Do not drink any Pepsi products for the next few weeks because a company employee has added his blood contaminated with HIV (AIDS). It was shown on Sky News yesterday. Please forward this message to people you care about.

Really alarming. Those who do not know will immediately begin to notify, and people familiar with these diseases will ignore the letter, maybe even laugh. Why? - let's look further at the portal hiv.rf

HIV and AIDS are not the same thing:

HIV- a virus that attacks the immune system.

HIV- human immunodeficiency virus is a virus that causes AIDS- acquired immunodeficiency syndrome. HIV can weaken the immune system to the point where the body develops opportunistic diseases that a healthy immune system would normally fight off.

Diagnosis AIDS develops several years after HIV infection when a person develops one or more serious diseases.

There are several ways of transmitting HIV infection:

Unprotected (without a condom) penetrative sexual contact; - sharing or reusing syringes, needles and other injection equipment;

Use of non-sterile instruments for tattoos and piercings;

Using someone else's shaving equipment, toothbrushes with blood residue;

Transmission of the virus from an HIV-positive mother to her child - during pregnancy, childbirth and breastfeeding.

HIV is not transmitted:

When shaking hands or hugging; - through sweat or tears;

When coughing and sneezing;

When using shared dishes or bed linen;

When sharing a bathtub and/or toilet;

When playing sports together;

In public transport;

Through animals or insect bites;

When kissing / through saliva.

HIV is not transmitted by kissing, since the concentration of the virus in saliva is not enough for infection

HIV does not live long in the air:

There are many misconceptions and misinterpretations of scientific evidence regarding HIV's life outside the human body. Laboratory studies use virus concentrations that are at least 100,000 times higher than those found in nature. When such artificially high concentrations are used, HIV can remain alive for 1-3 days after the liquid has dried.

Laboratory concentrations are at least 100,000 times higher than natural concentrations. If we reduce the data to the natural concentration of the virus, we can conclude that HIV lives outside the body for only a few minutes. If HIV lived outside the body for many hours or days (in its natural concentrations), we would undoubtedly observe cases of household infection - but they do not happen.

For safety reasons (although there is no danger), an infected person may not be hired into production. It's stupid not to drink this soda without knowing which batch is "contaminated"

And if you think that it’s “infected”, then think bigger: The soda is produced in large batches and can be stored for a year. Let us conclude that one week is definitely not enough.

To this day, posts appear on social networks where supposedly terrorists infected with AIDS in the subway fasten blades to the handrails of cars, cut their palms and leave. Yes, cutting yourself is unpleasant, but there will be so little blood left on the blade that the virus will die after a couple of minutes or seconds, without having time to find a new carrier.

Illustration copyright Facebook Image caption Dixon posted photos of the “rat” on Facebook.

A week ago, California resident Devorize Dixon posted on social networks photos and videos of food he bought from the KFC fast food restaurant.

Dixon claims that instead of chicken, they brought him a breaded, fried rat in a box, and he even managed to take a bite of it before realizing his mistake.

The photographs quickly spread around the world. Dixon was invited on the air of a local radio station, where he said that the KFC employee to whom he showed the rat apologized to him, and he kept the rat itself in the refrigerator.

However, many online commentators questioned the veracity of the story, suggesting that the Californian actually bought a piece of chicken, albeit a rather bizarre one.

KFC officially denied the discovery of the rat, noting that Dixon himself refused to submit his find for examination.

The BBC Russian service has collected high-profile cases in which large food companies had to refute the most incredible accusations against them.

Eight-legged sixwing

Two weeks ago, on June 1, the same fast food chain KFC officially filed a lawsuit against three Chinese companies, accusing them of spreading false rumors about their products.

An official refutation of rumors spread on social networks was published on the website of the Chinese division of the company that it allegedly uses genetically modified chickens, each of which has six wings and eight legs, to prepare its dishes.

KFC demanded damages caused by these rumors in the amount of 1.5 million yuan (about 240 thousand dollars) and an apology from each of the three Chinese companies.

The court accepted the claim for consideration.

Insect soda

In 2009, the media from several countries, including Russia and Turkey, began an active discussion of the composition of the popular Coca-Cola drink, for the preparation of which, along with sugar, caffeine and phosphoric acid, insect larvae are allegedly used.

We were talking about cochineal scale insects - insects of the order Hemiptera (this also includes, for example, bugs and cicadas), from the females of which carmine is actually extracted - a substance used as a red food coloring.

The rumors were greatly fueled by the fact that the Coca-Cola company traditionally keeps the recipe for its drink a strict secret, so there is simply no official list of its ingredients.

“If you have a question about the composition of the Coca-Cola drink, then you can take a bottle of this drink and read the composition of the drink on the label. I hasten to refute the information that is now appearing in many media, including on the Internet, as "The coloring agent used in the Coca-Cola drink is sugar coloring. Simply put, this is burnt sugar, familiar to everyone from childhood, and nothing else," said Vladimir Kravtsov, press secretary of the Russian representative office of Coca-Cola.

However, this statement did not do much to calm critics. Many noted that Kravtsov’s statement does not exclude the use of other dyes in production, including cochineal.

HIV in an aluminum can

Coca Cola's main competitor, Pepsi, experienced a similar scandal not long ago.

In December 2011, mobile phone users - first in India and then in other countries - began sending each other SMS warnings about a batch of drink allegedly contaminated with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV).

"Important message... for several days do not drink any Pepsi products - Tropicana, Slice, 7Up, Coca-Cola, etc. juices, as one of the company's employees added his blood infected with HIV. - the SMS said. “Please forward this message to everyone you care about!”

Attentive readers immediately suspected a fake: after all, Coca-Cola is not a drink produced by Pepsi. However, similar messages began to spread on Facebook, without mentioning Coca-Cola.

The company's vice president of marketing, Hemalatha Ragavan, had to refute the rumors, saying that such reports first appeared in India a few months ago, "but even there no one believed them."

“In any case, it has been scientifically proven that HIV is not transmitted through food or drink,” she added, accusing detractors of “an unsuccessful attempt at black PR.”

Militant McDonald's

Last August, a scandal erupted in Malaysia: there were mass demonstrations demanding a boycott of McDonald's products for allegedly financing Israel's military operations in the Gaza Strip.

It was never possible to find out the origin of these rumors, but they were very actively spread on social networks: the majority of Malaysians profess Islam and support the Palestinians’ desire for independence. Polls also show that two-thirds of Mazailians admit to anti-Semitism.

McDonald's has denied rumors that it has ties to Israeli authorities, officially declaring that it is in no way associated "with any political activity, violence or harassment" and that a boycott of the company's products would only harm its 12,000 Malaysian employees, 85% of whom are Muslims.

At the same time, the company denied another rumor that was actively spreading in Malaysia - that on Fridays, McDonald's restaurants would allegedly give out burgers and drinks for free.

The message goes like this:

I received information from friends, be careful and careful!

Do not drink any Pepsi products for the next few weeks because a company employee has added his blood contaminated with HIV (AIDS). It was shown on Sky News yesterday. Please forward this message to people you care about.

Really alarming. Those who do not know will immediately begin to notify, and people familiar with these diseases will ignore the letter, maybe even laugh. Why? - let's look further at the portal hiv.rf

HIV and AIDS are not the same thing:

HIV- a virus that attacks the immune system.

HIV- human immunodeficiency virus is a virus that causes AIDS- acquired immunodeficiency syndrome. HIV can weaken the immune system to the point where the body develops opportunistic diseases that a healthy immune system would normally fight off.

Diagnosis AIDS develops several years after HIV infection when a person develops one or more serious diseases.

There are several ways of transmitting HIV infection:

Unprotected (without a condom) penetrative sexual contact; - sharing or reusing syringes, needles and other injection equipment;

Use of non-sterile instruments for tattoos and piercings;

Using someone else's shaving equipment, toothbrushes with blood residue;

Transmission of the virus from an HIV-positive mother to her child - during pregnancy, childbirth and breastfeeding.

HIV is not transmitted:

When shaking hands or hugging; - through sweat or tears;

When coughing and sneezing;

When using shared dishes or bed linen;

When sharing a bathtub and/or toilet;

When playing sports together;

In public transport;

Through animals or insect bites;

When kissing / through saliva.

HIV is not transmitted by kissing, since the concentration of the virus in saliva is not enough for infection

HIV does not live long in the air:

There are many misconceptions and misinterpretations of scientific evidence regarding HIV's life outside the human body. Laboratory studies use virus concentrations that are at least 100,000 times higher than those found in nature. When such artificially high concentrations are used, HIV can remain alive for 1-3 days after the liquid has dried.

Laboratory concentrations are at least 100,000 times higher than natural concentrations. If we reduce the data to the natural concentration of the virus, we can conclude that HIV lives outside the body for only a few minutes. If HIV lived outside the body for many hours or days (in its natural concentrations), we would undoubtedly observe cases of household infection - but they do not happen.

For safety reasons (although there is no danger), an infected person may not be hired into production. It's stupid not to drink this soda without knowing which batch is "contaminated"

And if you think that it’s “infected”, then think bigger: The soda is produced in large batches and can be stored for a year. Let us conclude that one week is definitely not enough.

To this day, posts appear on social networks where supposedly terrorists infected with AIDS in the subway fasten blades to the handrails of cars, cut their palms and leave. Yes, cutting yourself is unpleasant, but there will be so little blood left on the blade that the virus will die after a couple of minutes or seconds, without having time to find a new carrier.

Russians are massively receiving scary messages in instant messengers and social networks saying that under no circumstances should they drink drinks from Pepsi - they are allegedly infected with HIV.

“Do not drink any Pepsi products for the next few weeks because a company employee has added his blood contaminated with HIV (AIDS). It was shown on Sky News yesterday. Please send this message to people you care about,” is what the text looks like as it wanders from one user to another.

The message in Russian does not sound very competent and is written with an error. After reading, it seems that the text was translated into Russian in an online translator from some other language. And this is not an unreasonable assumption.

It's not just Russians who are scared

The frightening text is now being distributed exclusively in Russia, but residents of other countries have encountered it in previous years. The alarming message was discussed at different times in Britain and the USA. There, information about allegedly contaminated drinks from the said company was distributed on Facebook.

Should we start being afraid?

If you have received or will receive this message, then do not worry.

• Firstly, to date there have not been a single case of HIV infection through food.
• Secondly, the human immunodeficiency virus does not live outside the human body and quickly dies in the air, when heated or under the influence of acidic gastric juice. In other words, there is simply no risk of becoming infected even by consuming such products.

Still, it’s better not to drink

In general, it looks like banal annoying spam. Who and why started sending out frightening messages is currently unknown. However, you can do your part to stop this information terror - ignore and do not send this message to your loved ones when you receive it.

At the same time, you can still take one useful reminder from this message: any sugary soda is not the healthiest product, and it is really best to avoid it in your diet.