Finding the truth

         Well, it happens in our daily life when people spread rumours and sometime even our common sense can’t accept it. But, you still do spread the rumours. Ha! With the help of the social networks nowadays, anything can be spread in the blink of eye. The moment when you click ‘share’ it’ll spread like a wind. 

 

        My friend shared on her wall about something. Here it goes,( it was in Malay but I found the English version of it!) 

“A family went picnic one Sunday, taking with them some cans of coke. On Monday two of the family members were taken to the hospital and placed in the Intensive Care Unit. One of them died on Wednesday. The autopsy concluded she died of Leptospirosis. This was traced to the can of coke she drank from, not using a glass. Tests showed that the can was infected by dried rat urine and hence the disease Leptospirosis.

Rat urine contains toxic and deathly substances. It is highly recommended to thoroughly wash the upper part of soda cans before drinking out of them. The cans are typically stocked in warehouses and transported straight to the shops without being cleaned.

A study at showed that the tops of soda cans are more contaminated than public toilets (I.e.). Full of germs and bacteria. So wash them with water before putting them to the mouth to avoid any kind of fatal accident.

Please forward this message to all the people you care about.”

       I was laughing out loud when I read through this articles since everyone drink from the soda can. This is totally absurd to say that she died because of the can infected by the rat urine. Erm, by the way when I scrolled down to have a look at the comments, and I was like uh-oh, “ you people do believe it, how?”

     Don’t you verify the information before sharing something or did you blindly believe something you’re unsure about? Those entire questions popped out from my mind. I did some googling and found out that this rumour is a fake and was circulating around in early 2000. I knew that!

     First of all, Leptospirosis is a notifiable disease in Malaysia( oh, my country). Every case should be reported and relevant investigation will be carried out. Because of this, the CDC( Center for disease control)  will be informed and if the case really happen to be like in the above articles and it’ll be anywhere on the tv and newspapers. But the truth- the CDC never had that kind of case. Uh –oh. 

      Well, as far as I know leptospirosis isn’t spread by domestic rats. The high risk group are people who are involved in farming or person who went swimming or after a huge flood. That’s how it’s commonly spread. 

       In my opinion, it might be true that the woman died of leptospirosis but totally not because of the can infected by red urine. Most probably they went picnic and go swimming to somewhere where we know, the risk and all! Aigoo~

“So wash them with water before putting them to the mouth to avoid any kind of fatal accident” 

      Anyway, people say it’s good to wash first. Well, no offense since who knows where these cans could have been to and what’s on the Earth the bacteria might be. But don’t be too obsessive with it. By washing them, you can’t 100 percent sure that the bacteria is out or perhaps people might start to rub or dip the cans with antiseptic solution before using it to make sure it’s sterile. Haha! What a funny things to do! Honestly, bacteria are among us. We live with them even they attach to our skin and we called it normal flora of the skin!

        Basically, I now realized that everyone should have basic information about everything for not to blindly trust anything that we read. We have to be critical in analysing any news so that we know what the real deal would be. Critical thinking is important!

       This article is just an example. There’s a lot of articles like this out there and had been circulating but still, people do believe it. For those who read this, let’s think before we click the ‘share’ and started to believe it. Use google to verify it first! 

        And matlutfi90,our Malaysian video blogger  adressed the same issue in his youtube video.Here's the subbed version. 

       We’re the victim of information overload but the most important is to use the common sense and the thoughts. The mind (thoughts) is the greatest gift given to us and make sure to use it wisely. Till then, anyeong!

p/s: Anyway, I should thank google for the awesomeness. Those images are not mine to begin with, just randomly taken from google. If it's yours, reader...please allow me to put here, or you can send back-links to your site! Would that be alright?