The Malaysian Government Thinks that Homosexuality Causes Swine Flu

Every so often there's a story on the global health circuit that is so absurd, it causes our proverbial record to scratch. Like the time that South Africa's former Health Minister, Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, said that ingesting lemon juice and potatoes could help treat HIV.  Or when evangelical groups like Word Relief, who received millions of U.S. federal dollars in PEPFAR funding under President George W. Bush, told people in countries like Mozambique, Kenya and Haiti that condoms don't work to prevent STDs.

Well, now it's time to count Malaysia's government-run news service as part of the global health lie factory.  Today they're out with an article from a physician that says homosexuality and masturbation make the body an easy target for Swine Flu (otherwise known as H1N1).  The scary part is that the news service in question, Bernama, runs their stories in nearly every part of the country.  Lies and misinformation, get ready to spread.

The doctor at the center of the article, V. M. Palaniappan, used to teach ecology at the University of Malaysia.  Maybe he should have stuck with ecology instead of wading into the waters of global health.  Here's his rationalization behind his theory, which almost reads like a non-sequitor from Alaska's former governor.  Check it out:

Dr. V. M. Palaniappan said that homosexuality and masturbation caused the body to develop friction heat which in turn, produced acid and made the body hyperacidised.

"Thus, the body becomes an easy target for H1N1 infection," he told Bernama, emphasising however, that normal sexual union between members of the opposite sex was absolutely safe....

Ah, yes.  It's only the homosexual sex that causes friction heat.  Must be all that dance music we listen to while getting it on...

Two words come to mind.  Medical crackpot.  Yet the government of Malaysia gives this guy a voice with which to reach people across the country, and offer medical advice.  I wonder if that has anything to do with the fact that Malaysia criminalizes homosexuality with penalties ranging from twenty years in prison to whippings and beatings.  Or that Malaysia's ruling political party is so vehemently anti-LGBT, that they even have a sub-section of the party known as the "People's Anti-Homosexual Voluntary Movement."

Anyone else thinking that we could start a reality show under the title of, "When Countries Attack Global Health"?