Saheed Ibrahim

Claim: A viral WhatsApp and Facebook video claims a strange ‘disease’ was inserted into semo imported to Nigeria, leading to the deformation of a family of eight in Lagos State.

Verdict: Misleading! The image of the Monkeypox victim attached was from the Democratic Republic of Congo, and there is no report of any strange disease in Lagos.

Semo is a type of food commonly eaten in Nigeria. Shortened for Semovita and made from Semolina, semo is made from processed wheat, a coarse, purified wheat middling of durum wheat mainly used in making pasta and puddings. It is typically cooked into a smooth, dough-like delicacy, similar to fufu or eba. Semo is often served with soups and stews, such as egusi, ogbono, or vegetables.

Recently, a video circulating on social media platforms, particularly on WhatsApp, shows two individuals with pox. The voice in the 56-second footage, speaking in Yoruba, claims that the man and a woman shown ate semo and got inflicted with the strange disease from semo. 

The male voice in Yoruba said, 

“Every Nigerian listening to me. May we not be afflicted with a deadly disease. I beg you in the name of God. Let us avoid semo. They said the disease is injected inside semo. In Lagos, where I am currently, eight people ate the semo two days ago. May we not see any calamity. May we not turn deformed. A whole family has been deformed. 

“Please, whoever listens to this and does not share will be unfortunate, and your children will be unfortunate.

“I beg you, in the name of God, whosoever shares this with their contacts to save people’s lives, may you not contract any deadly disease. In the name of God, let us avoid eating semo. 

“They are inserting the disease inside semo, especially those imported from India. The disease is in India, and they want it to get into Nigeria. Please note that they have detected the disease inside semo. Please let us transfer this to everybody. Thank you.”

Due to the sensitivity of the claims in the video and its virality, we conducted a fact-check.

Verification

We tried to detect the disease displayed in the video by conducting a Google Reverse Image Search on the images shared in the footage. The result showed that it was “Monkeypox.” We showed the video to medical practitioners, and they confirmed the pox on the people shown in the video, suggesting the disease is MonkeyPox.

According to the Senior Registrar, Department of Family Medicine, Federal Medical Centre, Owo, Dr Samuel Aluko, “The lady up looks more classical for a case of MonkeyPox. The man under looks more like chronic complicated skin lesions. It could also be a severe case of Monkey, though.”

We then conducted a reverse image search, which revealed that the picture of the infected woman in the viral video was taken during the Monkeypox outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). The Guardian reported on June 26 about the virus in South Kivu Province of DRC. Similar reports linking the image and the disease outbreak to DRC can be found here and here.

The World Health Organisation’s (WHO) June 14, 2024 report confirmed that MonkeyPox had killed 654 people out of the 14,626 cases in DRC in 2023 and as of May 26, 2024, 7,851 cases were detected, including 384 deaths. WHO reported that a 19-year-old woman with a macular skin rash was discovered in the province on June 1, 2024. This evidence confirmed that the image of the woman shared in the viral video was not from Nigeria but from DRC.

We also found no evidence of a new Monkeypox outbreak in Lagos State or any report of a family of eight that contracted the disease, as the viral WhatsApp video claimed. However, reports revealed that there was a deadly outbreak of Monkeypox in Nigeria in 2017, followed by another outbreak in 2022. Before 2017, the Centre for Disease Control reported that “the last time that cases of monkeypox were reported in Nigeria was in the 1970s.”

What is Monkeypox?

According to the Centres for Disease Control (CDC), monkeypox (Mpox) is a rare infectious viral zoonotic disease (i.e. an infection transmitted from animals to humans). CDC reported that the disease “was discovered in 1958 when two outbreaks of a pox-like disease occurred in colonies of monkeys kept for research, hence the name monkeypox.” 

The first human case was identified in a child in the Democratic Republic of the Congo in 1970. The incubation period ranges from six to sixteen days but can range from five to twenty-one days, with symptoms typically lasting two to four weeks. However, cases can be severe, particularly in children, pregnant women, or individuals with suppressed immune systems.

According to the World Health Organization WHO, Mpox is characterised by common symptoms such as skin rash or mucosal lesions, fever, headache, muscle aches, back pain, low energy, and swollen lymph nodes.

WHO also says it can be transmitted to humans through physical contact with an infectious person, contaminated materials, or infected animals. Laboratory confirmation is achieved by PCR testing of skin lesion material. Treatment for Mpox involves supportive care, and in some circumstances, vaccines and therapeutics developed for smallpox and approved in certain countries can be used.

As of October 2022, monkeypox has been reported in 13 African Union (AU) Member States: Benin, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Congo, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Egypt, Ghana, Liberia, Morocco, Mozambique, Nigeria, Sudan, and South Africa. 

The spread of the disease has shown a concerning geographic distribution, with cases now documented in various regions across the continent. The disease has been recorded in African countries, including Benin, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Congo, Côte d’Ivoire, DRC, Gabon, Liberia, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, and South Sudan.

 Conclusion

No evidence was found that a strange disease was imported into Nigeria from India through semo. Also, there was no report of a deformed family of eight in Lagos State. Our investigations also show that the video used to make the claim is from Congo. The claim is, therefore, misleading.

This report is produced for the DUBAWA 2024 Kwame Karikari Fact-Checking Fellowship in partnership with The Hope Newspaper to facilitate the ethos of truth in journalism and enhance media literacy in Nigeria.