The Health Ministry has made a formal complaint to the CID (Cyber Crimes Section) in connection with some social media reports which spread inaccurate and fabricated health information, a Health Ministry spokesman said.
According to the spokesman, the ministry lodged a formal complaint to the CID on May 6 (last Saturday) in connection with certain information circulated through social media which states that health officers visit homes at night to infected people with HIV in the guise of carrying out blood tests.
The Filaria Control Programme of the Health Ministry had made the complaint to the CID on the instructions of Health Minister Dr. Rajitha Senaratne. Although the WHO has confirmed that Sri Lanka has minimized Filaria, health officials visit homes at night with numerous difficulties in order to take blood samples from the public to make sure that Filaria does not affect the Sri Lankan people in the long term, he said.
The blood samples are required to be obtained at night because the Filaria worm appears in blood only at night.
The health officials visit homes in their official uniform with identity cards. The Health Ministry requests the public to enable them to obtain blood without any fear after checking their uniform and the identity card, he added.