Accounts posing as Malaysian health ministry promote unauthorised joint pain medicine
- Published on December 30, 2024 at 10:05
- 4 min read
- By Najmi Mamat, AFP Malaysia
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"YB Datuk Seri Dr. Dzulkefly Ahmad advised Malaysians to take precautions against bone and joint pain and instructed the public to apply this well-known bone and joint pain medicine imported from the US," read a lengthy Malay-language Facebook post shared on December 12, 2024.
The post, which was shared by an account with the name "Ministry of Health Malaysia - KKM", also included a purported quote from Dzulkefly about the product having "amazing effects".
It added that "Feijoint bone gel" was authorised by the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and could relieve "back pain, knee pain, numbness and prevent complications such as osteoarthritis and osteoporosis".
Attached to the post are several images, including a photo of a Ministry of Health press conference and close-ups that appear to show the health minister and the Deputy Director-General of Health Dr Norhayati Rusli holding the product.
A link in the post led to a website where the gel can be bought for 65 ringgit ($14.48) a bottle.
A similar post was shared by the same account here, and other accounts also bearing the KKM abbreviation for the Ministry of Health promoted the same product to their hundreds of followers here, here and here.
But the health ministry says the posts are "fake" and the pages sharing them had misused their name and logo.
Furthermore, there is no record of "Feijoint bone gel" in Malaysia's National Pharmaceutical Regulatory Agency database, indicating it is not registered in the country (archived link).
Imposter accounts
A keyword search on Google led to a statement posted by the Ministry of Health on its official Facebook page on December 19, warning the public about the posts (archived link).
"The Ministry of Health (KKM) would like to call attention to a company/entity that has misused the KKM name in advertisements to sell unauthorised health products on Facebook, on the page called 'Ministry of Health - KKM' and 'Kuala Lumpur Hospital KKM' as well as on an external website that is not owned by KKM or its affiliated facilities," read the statement.
The Minister of Health also posted a statement about the imposter accounts on his official Facebook page on December 10 (archived link).
"Attempts have been made repeatedly using different names (of accounts)," his post read.
Reverse image searches on Google of the images attached to the false posts led to similar photos of a press conference that were posted on the health ministry's official Facebook page on December 3 (archived link).
The photos show that neither Dzulkefly or Norhayati were holding the "Feijoint bone gel" product.
Their Malay-language caption states: "YB Datuk Seri Dr. Dzulkefly Ahmad, the Minister of Health held a special press conference regarding the Amendment to the Prevention and Control of Infectious Diseases Act 1988 [Act 342] in Putrajaya, today."
The post makes no mention of the minister endorsing or promoting the joint gel product.
Below are screenshot comparisons of the altered images (left) and the photos shared by the Ministry of Health (right):
According to the caption of a similar photo published by state news agency Bernama, the minister was in fact holding a health officials' authorisation card (archived link).
A separate reverse image and keyword searches found the final image in the false post was altered from a photo of Dzulkefly published by Bernama in 2019 (archived link).
Below is a screenshot comparison between the altered photo in the false post (left) and the Bernama photo (right):
AFP has debunked other false claims that were shared by accounts impersonating Malaysian ministries and government departments here and here.
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