‘AIDS spreads by shaking hands’: Old, banned pamphlets resurface on social media

(Source: Twitter)

All myths that this pamphlet was intended to dispel, it ended up propagating. But the irony is that this pamphlet is NOT recent, and was recalled within a few weeks of being printed over two years back. It’s not known how the pamphlet’s picture came back into circulation online, and not only caused many to rage on social media platforms such as Twitter, but also made headlines on several websites.

Pavan Rekha Beri, joint director (IEC), PSACS, Chandigarh, told indianexpress.com, “One lakh pamphlets were published in the last week of December 2014, and 5,800 had been sent to various districts before the mistake was realised.” In January 2015, PSACS sent a circular recalling the pamphlet and asking centres not to distribute it further. Now, in 2017, much their worry, a copy of the pamphlet has resurfaced on the Internet and they are yet again in the line of fire.

Beri went on to say that they have neither been able to identify who committed the initial mistake, nor who shared the misprinted pamphlet now, which has gone viral. In a era, where misinformation spreads like wild-fire, such false notions about a deadly disease and that too from an esteemed organisation, will only add to the existing discrimination towards those who are suffering from the disease.

Speaking to indianexpress.com, Punjab’s health minister Brahm Mohindra said, “We are investigating the matter how the pamphlet has surfaced again after a long time. I am told that few years ago, soon after the mistake was found the department had stopped the circulation.”