Close on the heels of the World Health Organisation declaring monkeypox a ‘Public Health Emergency of International Concern’, a post containing various dubious claims about the disease has gone viral on social media.

The claims, presented as a graphic, have been attributed to organisations like the BBC, WHO and CDC.

The post would have you believe, among other things, that monkeypox has been classified as an airborne disease and a form of herpes, and could cause paralysis.

But The Hindu found some of the claims to be misleading and others, completely false. The graphic as a whole was fake.

To begin with, we looked into whether the BBC had indeed carried this graphic. We could not find it on any of the digital platforms of the broadcaster.

When contacted, the BBC confirmed this was not a real graphic and urged people to check the veracity of stories on the BBC News website.

We then shared the post with Dr. Rosamund Lewis, an expert on monkeypox at WHO, who provided a point-by-point response to the claims. The WHO also shared detailed guidance on the disease with The Hindu.

On whether monkeypox is airborne, Dr. Rosamund Lewis said, “Monkeypox can transmit through inhalation of contaminated particles or virus, usually in close proximity. Examples include exposure of mucous membranes or the lungs to droplets or short-range aerosols such as through face-to-face contact with someone who has monkeypox lesions in the mouth, or from inhalation of infected particles such as skin...

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