FALSE: Reports of a ‘killer disease’ in Kisii that ‘kills faster than AIDS’ are untrue
A story published by Ghetto Radio and widely shared on social media claiming there is an outbreak of Human Papillomavirus (HPV) in Kisii county, which allegedly ‘kills faster than HIV/AIDS’ is false.
The post, which attributes the spread of HPV to ‘indiscriminate kissing’, claims that several people have been admitted at Kisii Level Five Hospital after testing positive to the disease, a claim the hospital’s CEO Dr John Ondari has denied.
Similar reports debunked by Snopes, an independent fact-checking organisation, have claimed that this strain of HPV is gradually circulating in Kenya and is eventually to spread in the African continent — claims that have also been found to be false.
According to the Center for Disease Control (CDC), HPV is only transmitted through sexual contact and not kissing. One can only get HPV by having vaginal, anal, or oral sex with someone who has the virus.
One indicator that the story is false is that it has not been reported in local media, and the World Health Organization’s Regional Office for Africa, the organization that is mandated to report such outbreaks, have made no reference to any particular ‘outbreak’ of HPV in Kenya.
PesaCheck has looked into the claim that there is a ‘kissing disease’ in Kisii that ‘kills faster than Aids’, and finds it to be FALSE.
This post is part of an ongoing series of PesaCheck fact-checks examining content marked as potential misinformation on Facebook and other social media platforms.
By partnering with Facebook and similar social media platforms, third-party fact-checking organisations like PesaCheck are helping to sort fact from fiction. We do this by giving the public deeper insight and context to posts they see in their social media feeds.
Have you spotted what you think is fake news or false information on Facebook? Here’s how you can report. And, here’s more information on PesaCheck’s methodology for fact-checking questionable content.
This fact-check was written by PesaCheck researcher James Okong’o, was edited by PesaCheck project manager for editorial and verification initiatives Stellar Murumba, and was approved for publication by PesaCheck managing editor Eric Mugendi.
PesaCheck is East Africa’s first public finance fact-checking initiative. It was co-founded by Catherine Gicheru and Justin Arenstein, and is being incubated by the continent’s largest civic technology and data journalism accelerator: Code for Africa. It seeks to help the public separate fact from fiction in public pronouncements about the numbers that shape our world, with a special emphasis on pronouncements about public finances that shape government’s delivery of Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) public services, such as healthcare, rural development and access to water / sanitation. PesaCheck also tests the accuracy of media reportage. To find out more about the project, visit pesacheck.org.
PesaCheck is a joint initiative of Code for Africa, through its innovateAFRICA fund, with additional funding support from the International Budget Partnership (Kenya) and Twaweza, in partnership with a coalition of local media organisations, and the International Center for Journalists (ICFJ).
