Doctors warn against ‘dangerously misleading’ posts claiming you can treat a stroke with a needle
Claims that pricking a stroke victim in the ear and fingertips with a needle could save their lives have been circulating for years, most recently through a wave of new Facebook posts in Africa. The posts attribute the advice to “Chinese medicine and professors”. We spoke to medical professionals practising both Chinese and Western medicine, who told us the advice was unfounded -- and that it’s dangerous, as it could encourage people to delay urgent treatment for a stroke victim.
The hoax has been circulating for more than a decade -- originally via a widely-circulated chain email, as reported by the New York Times in 2006.
Thirteen years later, thousands of people
have again been sharing the harmful advice about how to treat a stroke, a
sudden interruption of the blood supply to an area of the brain which
can be fatal or leave the victim with serious disabilities.
One of the posts has been shared more than
2,500 times since it was published by a Nigerian user in Prayer Rain, a
public Facebook group with over 300,000 members, in June. We’ve
archived the post here.
“HOW TO SAVE SOMEONE FROM STROKE. THIS IS
WHY YOU SHOULD ALWAYS HAVE A NEEDLE IN YOUR POCKET,” it reads. It goes
on to describe a supposed Chinese medicine technique for saving a stroke
victim’s life by pricking their fingers and earlobes with a needle.
A screenshot of a Facebook post carrying the needle claim, taken on August 7, 2019
Similar posts have been shared from accounts in Kenya, Ghana, Nigeria and South Africa, among others.
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