SPOKANE, Wash. -- A story floating around Facebook claims a 10-year-old boy in Tulsa, Oklahoma contracted HIV after eating a banana.
This story could stir up a lot of panic so we will tell you right now it’s fake.
This article was posted by CNNNews3.com. The credibility of this site is already busted because when you do a search for their homepage, the site no longer exists. Not to mention, the article does not say when this specific incident with the 10-year-old boy from Tulsa happened.
Now to answer the first question: "Have any bananas from Walmart recently been recalled?"
KREM 2 went to recalls.gov, which allows you to search recalls from several agencies including the FDA. We found no recalls for bananas at Walmart or for bananas in general. Therefore, we can verify there are no bananas reportedly infected with HIV being recalled.
Our second question is whether or not you can get HIV from food. In black and white the Center for Disease Control said, "You cannot get HIV from consuming food handled by an HIV-infected person or even if a food item contained small amounts of HIV.” It says however, HIV can be spread by eating food that has been pre-chewed by an HIV-infected person. But that is not what is being reported here.
The article also states "The facility, LHC Laboratories, evaluated the bananas which all came up positive consisting the HIV virus." KREM 2 tried to contact LHC laboratories to verify this information but there is no such thing. LHC Laboratories does not exist, so we can verify these so called infected bananas have not been tested positive for containing HIV.