The head of Health Affairs in Jeddah denied on Thursday rumors that 18 persons have died and another 35 placed in intensive care after trying a “lethal perfume”. Text messages sent out to mobile telephones on Wednesday warned of persons at shopping malls, local markets, traffic lights and other public places, selling perfume containing a poisonous substance that reportedly “kills whoever sniffs it within four days”. In the capital the spokesman for Riyadh Police also moved to quash seemingly related rumors concerning “Houthi infiltrators” in the street and in shopping centers “offering perfumes that are lethal if breathed in”, according to the Al-Riyadh local daily on Thursday. Police spokesman Sami Al-Shuweirikh also flatly denied rumors of “persons dressed as doctors with Ministry of Health logos claiming to be medical staff working in the swine flu vaccination campaign” who purportedly enter people's homes, drug the occupants, steal property and finally douse the rooms with a lethal spray before leaving. “All these things are plain rumors that have not an iota of truth in them,” Al-Shuweirikh told Al-Riyadh. “We have not had a single report of anyone dressing as vaccination campaign staff drugging people or anything of the sort.” The spokesman for the Ministry of Health also chipped in: “There are no medical teams visiting houses and spraying them with pesticides from the anti-swine flu campaign,” the spokesman said. “We would warn the public not to be taken in by such false information. The ministry always makes public announcements ahead of any new measures in all areas of the media.”
