Woman falsely claims spread of HIV in YouTube video

2010-01-24 06:53:37 (GMT) (WiredPRNews.com - News, Social Media News)

A woman reportedly made a video posted to YouTube falsely claiming she infected numerous people with HIV.

A woman reportedly made a video falsely claiming she infected people with HIV.

Detroit (WiredPRNews.com) – A Detroit woman reportedly falsely claimed she infected hundreds of people with HIV via a video that was posted on YouTube by gossip site Mediatakeout.com. As reported by the Associated Press (AP), the woman, who claimed in the video that she contracted the disease over a decade ago and sought to “destroy the world,” subsequently admitted the video was a hoax, and stated it was made for AIDS awareness purposes.

Mediatakeout.com editor Fred Mwangaguhunga is quoted in the report as stating of uploading the video to YouTube and reporting it to authorities, “We looked at it, talked about it, and whether or not we thought it was a hoax and whether we should put it out… She was alleging a possible public health crisis. The hope was we would be able to find out more information on the woman. We uploaded it onto YouTube, and that’s when we ran the story.”

Police spokesman John Roach, is quoted by the AP as stating of not filing charges against the woman as of yet, “We don’t see anything at this point under state law that would allow us to press charges, but we are researching.”

As noted in the report, after the hoax, there was an increase in the number of walk-ins for HIV testing in Detroit according to the health department.

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