An Italian blog article is currently often used as an opportunity to report on an outbreak of leprosy in Italy. Apparently leprosy has broken out in Rimini and 30 people are already under observation/quarantine. There is also a picture of a man whose face is covered in pustules.
According to the article, a Nigerian refugee introduced leprosy. In this case, analyzing the content is not that difficult for us, because our Italian colleagues from Bufale.net and David Puente have already looked at this content and published their results.
According to Bufale.net and David Puente, the investigations into this have not yet been completed and there are therefore no reliable official results yet. In addition, the person concerned is not a refugee, but a man from Nigeria who has lived and worked in Italy for years and was only visiting Africa. The 30 other people mentioned in this posting have not been quarantined and are not being treated; they have simply been informed of the matter.
Leprosy is a non-highly contagious disease that is transmitted through respiratory droplets. The incubation period can be several years. In areas with good health care, the disease is considered to be almost eradicated.
The photo
The photo used in the posting comes from the site es.slideshare.net and does not show the affected Nigerian, but another man of African descent. This page simply presents a study that deals with various diseases. To make it more difficult to find the origin of the image, it was simply mirrored in the posting.
Source analysis:
The “VoxNews” website should not be confused with “FoxNews” or the TV channel “VOX”. It is a website that has attracted attention through inaccurately researched reports, photos used in the wrong context and also through hate speech against refugees. In addition, according to Whois, this website is hosted in Panama.
Fact-Checker has taken action!
The Italian blogger and debunker David Puente filed a sedition complaint against the operators of the “VoxNews” site about 2 years ago, which appears to be still in progress. “VoxNews” is run by well-known racists and anti-Semites who are closely linked to the racist website “Stormfront”. Several trials have already been carried out against the website’s operators in Italy and a number of them have now been legally convicted.
In summary, it can be said that the above-mentioned report can currently neither be confirmed nor denied. But the fact is that a 29-year-old Nigerian was transferred to a hospital in Genoa on suspicion of leprosy. However, it is not a refugee and the illness has not yet been officially confirmed.
There is currently no further new information or results. If these are available, we will publish them.
Sources:
- https://www.davidpuente.it
- http://www.bufale.net/
- http://voxnews.info
- https://es.slideshare.net
- https://www.facebook.com/davidtytopuente/
- https://www.facebook.com/bufala/?fref=ts
Author/Translator: Paolo
Notes:
1) This content reflects the current state of affairs at the time of publication. The reproduction of individual images, screenshots, embeds or video sequences serves to discuss the topic. 2) Individual contributions were created through the use of machine assistance and were carefully checked by the Mimikama editorial team before publication. ( Reason )