Desperate Greeks are infecting themselves with HIV... or are they?

The title of this Daily Mail Online article from today reads:

Desperate Greek citizens 'are intentionally infecting themselves with HIV' to qualify for state benefit which is set aside for addicts

The first few paragraphs are ALARMING:

Desperate Greek citizens are intentionally infecting themselves with the HIV, in a bid to qualify for benefits which are given to sufferers of the killer virus, a report has claimed.
A World Health Organization report has revealed what it calls a 'significant rise' in the number of sufferers between 2007 and 2009, when the European financial crisis brought the country's economy to its knees.
The number of reported new infections then continued to soar, from 22 in 2010 to 245 in 2011, according to the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control.
Shockingly, the research said around half of new cases could be self-inflicted by drug addicts who want to cash in on welfare handouts.
In Greece, HIV carriers are entitled to a state benefit of €700 (£590) per month as well as access to drug substitution programmes which can help battle the illness.

link to Daily Mail Online source


They cite as their source, A World Health Organization report which can be found here.

On page 112, the following text appears:

HIV rates and heroin use have risen significantly, with about half of new HIV infections being self-inflected to enable people to receive benefits of €700 per month and faster admission on to drug-substitution programmes.

However, the WHO has since published a correction to their report:

In September 2013, WHO/Europe published “Review of social determinants and the health divide in the WHO European Region”. The report incorrectly states that, in Greece: “HIV rates and heroin use have risen significantly, with about half of new HIV infections being self-inflicted to enable people to receive benefits of €700 per month and faster admission on to drug substitution programmes”.

In fact, what is accurate to say is that slightly more than half of the Greece’s new HIV cases are among those who inject drugs. WHO recognizes that there is no evidence suggesting that deliberate self-infection with HIV goes beyond a few anecdotal cases. The statement is the consequence of an error in the editing of the report, for which WHO apologizes.

The correction can be found here.

Surely a large amount of the blame rests with the shoddy editorial job performed on the WHO report that let that tidbit slip through unchecked, but reporting on something as inflammatory as this without doing some substantial fact checking is just lazy.

Wonder how long it will take the Daily Mail to update their story or if they will at all?

reply to post by theantediluvian

[partial quote]

Surely a large amount of the blame rests with the shoddy editorial job performed on the WHO report that let that tidbit slip through unchecked, but reporting on something as inflammatory as this without doing some substantial fact checking is just lazy.

Shoddy ?

Or they had a purpose (what purpose I don't know).

Surely the 'editors' couldn't be this 'ignorant' (especially from the WHO) ?

The beauty of internet publishing is they can make a convenient 'error' and make 'corrections' soon after the 'real' message is instilled in the minds of the 'target' audience.

reply to post by xuenchen


I was looking around and there is actually a buzzfeed post that details this exact topic. That pointed to the source of the Lancet correspondence, referenced in the WHO report, which can be found here.

8. An additional factor the committee believed worth considering is the well-founded
suspicion that some problem users are intentionally infected with HIV, because of
the benefit they are entitled to (approximately € 1,400 every two months), and
also because they are granted “exceptional admission” to the Substitution
Programme. It is well-known that the Substitution Programme has a long waiting list
and that the waiting time can be over 3-4 years. Drug users with a severe chronic
condition jump the queue and are admitted in a short period of time.

We should remember that drug addicts are desperate people, i don´t find this surprising as much as i found surpricing drug addicts who start using Crocodile drug which kills them within two years of use.. it all about to get high and if 700 gives them couple more shots a month they will take it.

Even Reuters, owned by Rothchild, reported this faux story as well.
Admitted that all sources probably ran with the same headlines but none of these prestigious MSM sources vetted the story?
Curious indeed.

-Peace-

Eryiedes
Even Reuters, owned by Rothchild, reported this faux story as well.
Admitted that all sources probably ran with the same headlines but none of these prestigious MSM sources vetted the story?
Curious indeed.

-Peace-

It used to be that a newspaper might carry some AP content but now in this age of 24 hour "news" reporting, there's not nearly enough vetting and a lot of content is just recycled, errors and all, among media outlets.

It's similar to repeating the claim that Reuters is owned by Rothschild. It isn't and never has been. What was the point of saying it anyway?

reply to post by SummerLightning


"Rothschild purchases Reuters News Agency around 1888."

-Peace-

reply to post by theantediluvian


dudes... greek guy here... this applies only to junkies and heroin addicts... no one of the population (or anyone in their right minds) does this...

Dailymail is like the Sorcha Faal of newspapers

When I first read the WHO report I thought something must have been lost in translation. Im glad you posted this to clear that up.