A post has been shared on Facebook, Twitter and Whatsapp claims a regional government in India has recommended that the juice of bitter gourd, a vegetable often used in traditional medicine, is an effective treatment for the novel coronavirus.
Below is a screenshot of the misleading post:, The post’s Hindi caption translates to English as: “Friends the treatment of Coronavirus has been found by Indian scientists, bitter gourd juice will cure within two hours of its consumption. Send this message across all India, this is a matter of life, thank you Bihar Health department.”, According to the US-based health publication WebMD, bitter gourd is a green vegetable often used in traditional medicine across Asia., India has registered 468 COVID-19 infections as of March 24, 2020, AFP reported here. The government has said it will ground all domestic passenger flights from March 25 in a bid to curb the spread of the virus.\xa0More than 700 million people in 30 states and territories have been ordered into complete lockdowns, according to an AFP tally., , A similar claim about the benefits of bitter gourd juice\xa0were shared in posts here, here and here on Facebook and here and here on Twitter., The\xa0claim is\xa0false., During a phone conversation with AFP on March 19, 2020, Dr. Naveen Chandra Prasad, the Director in Chief of the Disease Control and Public Health section of Bihar’s Department of said: “This message is false, there is no such information issued by Bihar health department nor there is any evidence that bitter gourd juice can cure COVID-19.”, The Indian government’s Press Information Bureau also issued a statement on Twitter on March 18, 2020, calling the claim “absolutely false”., #FakeNews alert !\n\t\tकरेले का जूस पीने से #coronavirus के लुप्त हो जाने का दावा झूठा है | #CoronavirusOutbreak पर सटीक जानकारियों को साझा करें और अफवाहों से दूर रहें | pic.twitter.com/w7Ijs34CDY, The Hindi tweet translates to English as: “The claim that consumption of bitter gourd juice can cure coronavirus in two hours is absolutely false. Share accurate information about the Coronavirus but stay away from rumours.”, , , Copyright © AFP 2017-2020.  All rights reserved.  Users can access and consult this website and use the share features available for personal, private, and non-commercial purposes.  Any other use, in particular any reproduction, communication to the public or distribution of the content of this website, in whole or in part, for any other purpose and/or by any other means, without a specific licence agreement signed with AFP, is strictly prohibited.  The subject matter depicted or included via links within the Fact Checking content is provided to the extent necessary for correct understanding of the verification of the information concerned.  AFP has not obtained any rights from the authors or copyright owners of this third party content and shall incur no liability in this regard.  AFP and its logo are registered trademarks.
Indian health authorities refute myth that juiced vegetables can cure COVID-19 | AFP Fact Check