TikTok and Facebook (FB) users are sharing an old report about 166 overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) testing positive for human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). This is misleading. The report was first published 13 years ago.
Netizens started circulating this week a screenshot of the headline and lead of this Gulf News report:
“166 overseas Filipino workers tested HIV positive this year. About 166 overseas Filipino workers reportedly tested HIV positive from January to May this year.”
One of the TikTok posts bore the text and the caption:
“BREAKING NEWS UAE DUBAI/SATWA. Be awareness lahat poe mga kabayan. Meron naman ng positive sa HIV from satwa (Be aware, all of my countrymen. Another one tested positive for HIV in Satwa).”
“#BREAKING NEWS UPDATES #HIV POSITIVE IN SATWA#SANG KABAYAN NA DEPORT (A fellow Filipino was deported) #NEWWWWWS #OFWWORLDWIDE #fypシviral #COPYLINK #FORYOUPAGE #SATWA #OFFICIALTIKTOK #FYP #dubai.”
This is misleading. The report was published by the Dubai-based media organization Gulf News on August 31, 2011, referring to HIV cases involving Filipino workers from January to July of that year.
The screenshots deliberately exclude the report’s date of publication. The “January to July” duration of the data in the news was also changed to “January to May” to further mislead netizens.
Several users were misled into thinking the report was recent while others pointed out that it was from 2011.
Last month, the Supreme Court ruled it is illegal to fire an employee solely for testing positive for HIV. This is in relation to a complaint filed by an OFW working in Saudi Arabia whose employment was terminated after results showed that the worker was infected with the virus.
According to the Department of Health (DOH), 164 or four percent of the HIV cases reported from October to December last year were 20 to 64-year-old OFWs.
In a May 22 interview, Health Sec. Ted Herbosa also said that an average of 55 new cases of HIV are being recorded in the Philippines daily.
The misleading TikTok videos posted by users @i_am_maryver533, @ptitigar9 and @rajafakerypothwar02 collectively garnered 6,854 reactions, 1,265 comments, 10,134 shares and 484,400 views. FB users and pages also shared screenshots of the misleading videos.
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(Editor's Note: VERA Files has partnered with Facebook to fight the spread of disinformation. Find out more about this partnership and our methodology.)
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