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PeakMetrics / Fact Checks

Health & medicine fact checks

Explore claims publishers have checked about health & medicine. Read their original ratings and follow the evidence.

13,677 published reviews in this topic

NewtralHealth & medicine

El paracetamol contiene o transmite el «virus Machupo»

Publisher’s rating: Falso

The claim concerns a purported medicine called Paracetamol 500 or P-500 that allegedly contains or transmits the Machupo virus. Newtral reports that the claim had been submitted to it as a question and says the Madrid College of Pharmacists rejected the idea that the virus could spread through that route, calling it “nonsense.” The review’s conclusion addresses the specific allegation about transmission by a medicine, rather than the broader question of whether Machupo virus exists.

NewtralHealth & medicine

La falta de medicamentos en el Hospital Universitario Virgen de la Victoria de Málaga que impide aplicar el tratamiento de quimioterapia a los pacientes que padecen cáncer

Publisher’s rating: Falso

Newtral checked the claim that a lack of medicines at the Virgen de la Victoria University Hospital in Málaga, also known as “el Clínico,” was stopping cancer patients from receiving chemotherapy. The hospital told Newtral that there had been no such current disruption: its consulted sources said services were running as usual and that oncology patients were receiving treatment normally. [S1: “Nos habéis preguntado por la supuesta falta de medicamentos en el Hospital Universitario Virgen de la Victoria de Málaga, también conocido como ‘el Clínico’, que estaría impidiendo aplicar el tratamiento de quimioterapia a los pacientes que padecen cáncer. Es un bulo, tal y como confirman desde el centro hospitalario a Newtral.”] The hospital also described the circulating claim as one that recurs periodically. Newtral’s account distinguishes it from a real, earlier supply problem: a single patient’s chemotherapy was affected in 2017 by the temporary shortage of one specific medicine. The hospital characterized that episode as punctual, rather than evidence of an ongoing shortage preventing treatment for cancer patients generally. [S1: “Desde el Hospital Universitario Virgen de la Victoria advierten de que se trata de un bulo que se difunde recurrentemente cada cierto tiempo.”]

台灣事實查核中心Health & medicine

南韓家長爭相讓未成年兒子結紮

Publisher’s rating: 錯誤

The claim says South Korean parents were rushing to have their underage sons sterilized. Taiwan FactCheck Center examined the Chosun Ilbo article identified in the review as published on February 23, 2019, and found that its reporting did not support that broad characterization. The review says it searched the Chosun Ilbo website and confirmed a related article, whose headline concerned parents taking teenage sons for vasectomies because they feared the boys might get into trouble. (“查核中心檢索《朝鮮日報》網站，確認2019年2月23日有一篇相關報導，標題為〈「擔心孩子闖出意外」，父母帶著10幾歲的孩子去做輸精管結紮手術〉”) The article did describe repeated inquiries from parents, but inquiries are not the same as parents routinely taking their sons for surgery. The review quotes the article as saying that clinics in Seoul received many calls during school vacations asking about vasectomies for children, and that reports circulating among parent groups about pregnancies among school-age children had increased inquiries. It therefore characterizes the report as describing parents asking about the procedure, rather than a rush of parents bringing minors in to undergo it. (“每當寒暑假時，在首爾各地的泌尿科就會湧入父母親大量的來電，詢問有關讓小孩接受輸精管結紮手術的問題。”) The review also checked a more specific detail: whether a urologist said he had performed vasectomies on two high-school seniors. It reports that the original article did include that account, attributed to a clinic director in Seoul’s Gangnam area, who said he had operated on two male students the previous month. The account also said that the parents and students were strongly resolved to proceed. That specific report does not establish that parents broadly were rushing to have their underage sons operated on; the fact-check distinguishes the reported cases and consultations from the claim’s sweeping wording. (“在首爾江南圈經營泌尿科的院長A某說：『上個月就替2名高三男學生進行了輸精管結紮手術』” )

YouturnHealth & medicine

டாக்டர் சன்துக் ருய்ட் நேபாள நாட்டைச் சேர்ந்த கண் அறுவைச்சிகிச்சை மருத்துவர். இந்த கண் மருத்துவர் 1,00,000 பேருக்கு அவர்களின் பார்வையை இலவசமாக மீட்டுக் கொடுத்துள்ளார்.ஆனால, இவரை பற்றிய யாரும் அறியவில்லை.

Publisher’s rating: True

台灣事實查核中心Health & medicine

正子攝影加上斷層掃描的輻射劑量……等於你今天站在善導寺，看到距離善導寺一個捷運站之遠的台北火車站被丟了一個廣島級的原子彈...然後你被照了一下

Publisher’s rating: 錯誤

The claim compares the radiation from a PET scan combined with CT to being exposed to radiation from a Hiroshima-scale atomic bomb exploding at Taipei Main Station, as seen from near Shandao Temple. The review addresses that specific analogy. It reports that the doctor who made the comparison relied on an article describing CT radiation as equivalent to being two kilometres from an atomic-bomb explosion, but that the article did not support the doctor’s formulation. The review also notes that Shandao Temple Station is less than one kilometre from Taipei Main Station, not two kilometres. To assess the medical dose, the review cites a statement from Taiwan’s Society of Nuclear Medicine. It says a typical PET examination using 10 mCi of 18F-FDG involves 6.23 mSv, while the low-dose CT component involves 7.22–7.42 mSv; together, the examination would not exceed 14 mSv. The review also reports that Taiwan’s Atomic Energy Council put the dose from PET/CT at about 7–10 mSv. The review contrasts these medical exposures with the radiation at the Hiroshima bomb site: according to the Atomic Energy Council’s cited dose assessment, radiation within one kilometre of the explosion’s centre was about 3,000 mSv or more, delivered at a high dose rate. It explains that a medically indicated scan is assessed by a physician and follows radiation-minimisation principles, whereas the bomb comparison describes an extreme exposure. On the evidence presented, the two situations are not appropriately treated as equivalent.