HOAX – ‘HIV & AIDS Infected Oranges Coming From Libya’

According to a ‘warning’ message that is going viral via social media, the ‘immigration services of Algeria’ have recovered a large quantity of HIV contaminated oranges shipped from Libya. The message claims that the oranges were injected with ‘positive tested HIV & AIDS blood’.

The message asks users to share the information as a means of warning others of the potential danger. It includes images supposedly depicting the contaminated oranges.

However, the message is just a silly hoax. There are no credible news reports that support the absurd claims in the message in any way.

Of course, if such a contamination issue was true, it would have been widely reported by news outlets around the world and there would be official government health warnings for citizens in potentially affected regions.  

News of such an issue certainly would not circulate solely via a vague and poorly rendered social-media message.

Moreover, the claims have no scientific credibility. HIV does not live long at all outside of the body. Exposure to air and stomach acids kill the virus. Thus, even if blood from a person who is HIV positive had been injected into oranges, there is virtually no chance that a person who later ate the fruit would become infected.

In an article about HIV transmission, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)  notes:

Except for rare cases in which children consumed food that was pre-chewed by an HIV-infected caregiver, HIV has not been spread through food. The virus does not live long outside the body. You cannot get it from consuming food handled by an HIV-infected person; even if the food contained small amounts of HIV-infected blood or semen, exposure to the air, heat from cooking, and stomach acid would destroy the virus.

This bogus warning is just one in a long sorry series of HIV and AIDS-related Internet hoaxes that have circulated in various forms for decades. A similar hoax falsely claimed that  canned fruit from Thailand  had been deliberately contaminated with HIV blood by factory workers. Another version claimed with equal falsity that various  Pepsi products had been deliberately contaminated  with HIV infected blood at a bottling plant.

Even earlier variants falsely claimed that an HIV positive chef who cut himself had  contaminated various takeaway foods.

One variant even claimed that HIV contaminated blood had been  deliberately added to ketchup containers  in fast-food restaurants.

Spreading such misinformation will help nobody. These hoax messages only cause confusion and alarm.

If one of these HIV related hoax warnings comes your way, please do not share it with others. And take the time to let the sender know that the information in the message is untrue.