Several misleading images, videos and audio clips have lately been circulating on social media promoting misinformation about the coronavirus pandemic. A set of images of an abnormal newborn child is now viral. It has been shared with the claim that the baby was born in Garoth village and her mother died after giving birth. The claim further adds that the child started speaking within one hour of her birth and said, “If you sleep tonight, you will sleep forever.”
From the Facebook profile of one Khan Ajaz, the images have drawn 4,400 shares. The complete message reads, “आज की बुरी खबर गरोठ गांव में एक लड़की हुई है जिसकी 1 घंटा भी नहीं हुआ है और वह बोल रही है कि जो सो गए वह सो गए और जो जग गए जो जग गए और उसकी मां तो मर चुकी है.”
A Twitter user @HindustaniRia_ shared a video of the baby and wrote that she was born in Rajasthan and died two hours after birth.
एक अजूबा हुआ है राजस्थान में। देखिए इस बच्ची ने जन्म लेते ही कुछ शब्द कहे और 2 घण्टे बाद इसकी मृत्यु हो गई थी। आदि मानव जैसी लग रही है। कलयुग है बहुत कुछ आश्चर्य देखना बाकी है। pic.twitter.com/bEJOwbBaqn
— Ria हिंदुस्तानी 🇮🇳 (@HindustaniRia_) March 28, 2020
Alt News has received multiple requests on its mobile application to fact-check the claim.
FACT-CHECK
Alt News found that the viral claim is false. In one of the images, a board reads “स्वास्थ्य केंद्र कालनद्र” (health centre, Kalandri) and in the video, a woman can be heard speaking Rajasthani. Taking these as clues, we found that a health centre is located in Sirohi district’s Kalandri in Rajasthan. Upon speaking with the centre’s doctor S Bhati, we discovered that he is the one photographed in the viral images.
“Yes, I am the doctor in the photographs. The child was born dead and the mother is still alive,” he informed Alt News. Speaking about the child’s condition he said, “Such kids have a deficiency of folic acid hence their growth is abnormal. The medical term for the condition is ‘Anencephaly’ and it hampers the growth of the brain’s neural tube. Sometimes, babies also develop water clots on the back of their bodies.”
More information about Anencephaly is available on the website of US public health institute Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Dr Bhati also sent us videos where he gives details of the incident.
Therefore, images and videos of a newborn baby who died suffering from a birth defect where parts of the brain and skull do not fully develop were shared with false claims. The assertion that the baby started talking after birth and warned that people who fall asleep will go on an eternal sleep is absurd, to put it lightly.
False claim viral
Photographs and videos of the baby are viral on Facebook and Twitter.
Local channel Udaipur News and YouTube channel Jio News TV also shared the video of the incident. They claimed that the abnormal child was born in Udaipur’s Gogunda.
In the past, Alt News had debunked a video of a baby born with the genetic disorder Cyclopia shared as the advent of ‘antichrist’ born in Israel. Another video of a baby suffering from a rare genetic disorder was shared as ‘demon’ baby born in Assam.