Bananas are part of a nutritional diet for many as they benefit in digestion, heart health and weight loss. But there are some alarming social media posts and WhatsApp forwards that will give people second thoughts about consuming fibre-rich fruit. Some discoloured bananas that may appear unappealing are being passed around as being infected by a deadly virus.
Let's take a look at what people are claiming about certain discoloured bananas and the truth behind it.
The claim
Over the years, there have been several social media posts claiming that bananas are being injected with infected blood to spread HIV. If you've come across certain bananas that have deep red discolouration, it might even be easy to assume that the bananas have indeed been injected with blood. The discolouration is visible when you peel off the skin and there's deep red at the centre core of the banana.
One user on Facebook claimed, sharing photos of discoloured banana, "someone is injecting blood into bananas." The user goes on to claim that an unnamed hospital even tested the banana and said it was blood. But the most alarming claim is that the blood injected into the banana is infected with HIV virus.
Fact check
International Business Times reviewed several such claims about bananas being used as carrier for HIV virus. Upon doing a simple web search on Google, it can be clarified that the redness caused in banana is in fact caused due to plant diseases.
As Snopes pointed out, Nigrospora is a fungal disease that causes the banana to turn dark red and it can infect the fruit in tropical climates. Also, Mokillo, mojo and blood disease bacterium are bacterial diseases known to cause red discolouration in bananas. While these plant diseases do not pose a threat to human health, one can avoid the fruit when in doubt.
Hence, the claims about red discoloured bananas being used to spread HIV are false and completely baseless.
