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| The fake whatzapp message |
Karnataka Health Minister UT Khader rubbished these rumours and said that legal action would be taken against those who originated it.
But without knowing the actual facts, the news is still circulating around social media in recent times also.
The message seems to have gone viral on the mobile application platform WhatsApp, with people forwarding it without getting proper verification. Khader expressed his concern over how unsubstantiated reports like these could cause mass panic in the country and disrupt day-to-day life.
The Health Minister of the state of Karnataka also said that his ministry is looking to file a suo-moto criminal case against the miscreants.
A suo-moto case is a case where a court may, on its own, go ahead with legal proceedings without the presence of the offending or the prosecuting party.
The person identified in the message is a student of National Institute of Technology Karnataka (NITK) , named Sreejith, and he was indeed, pursuing his M. Tech degree at the institute. However, Sreejith had never contracted the Ebola virus. He had in fact, succumbed to a lung infection. Sreejith, who was also a state-level badminton player, died because his lung infection was diagnosed at a very advanced stage.
An Ethiopian student in the institute who is being rumoured to have been infected with Ebola has not travelled to his native country for the past two years. All the messages on social media of the spread of the Ebola virus at the institute are baseless.
Other than the rumour about the student from Mangalore, the message also says that the Ebola virus has spread in Mumbai. Though, there was a suspected case of the Ebola virus in Mumbai, last week, the man, who had admitted himself to the hospital, was later released as he tested negative for the virus.
Tips to Avoid Ebola in the Message is also seems to be false.
The message urges the readers to regularly consume Tulsi leaves, in order to avoid contracting the Ebola virus. Although tulsi leaves are considered to have healing properties, it has not been proven to be a cure for the virus. In fact, the Ebola virus has no known cure. A couple of experimental vaccines have been developed by the governments of USA and Canada, but they are still in clinical trials.
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