I received this email today, its really disturbing, assuming it is true of course.....
So just in case it is true, ive copied it below:-
Subject: FW: Serious message - Please read for your safety
Hi Everyone
For your information, a couple of weeks ago, in the odeon cinema, Festival Park, a person sat on something sharp in one of the seats. When she stood up to see what it was, a needle was found poking through the seat with an attached note saying, "you have been infected with HIV".
The Centres for Disease Control in Birmingham, reports similar events have taken place in several other cities recently. ALL of the needles tested HAVE been found positive for HIV. The CDC also reports that needles have been found in the coin return areas of payphones and coke machines. Everyone is asked to use extreme caution when confronted with these types of situations. All public chairs should be thoroughly but safely inspected prior to any use. A thorough visual inspection is considered the bare minimum. Further more, they ask that everyone notify their familymembers and friends of the potential
dangers, as well.
The previous information was sent from hanley police station to all of the local councils in the Staffs area and was interdepartmentally dispersed.
We were all asked to pass this to as many people as possible."
Thankfully it's another urban myth:
Definitely an urban legend, this one's been going around for a while now.
One obvious clue (if you know much about the NHS in the Midlands) is that it refers to a 'centre for disease control' in Birmingham, there's no such place, though there is a CDC in the US, which is where the original hoax came from.
Just to reassure people, the chances of catching anything via a simple needlestick injury are actually very low*, even when the needle has previously been used on a person who's HIV positive. The reason drug addicts sharing 'works' are at a high risk is that (if this isn't too gross to say on this forum) they generally 'backwash', filling the syringe with blood and reinjecting it to ensure they've got all of the drug into their system.
*I know I read a few articles on this a while ago, but can't remember exact numbers.
A friend of mine says he knows people in the NHS who actually back this up as a real case, it was an urban myth but someone has actually gone out and done it.
Now wether thats true or not is a different matter.
When I worked for the Environment Agency we attended a course entitled 'Other Things Found by Watercourses', great name hey. We were told that after 24 hours the only thing you would catch of a needle was tetinus (spelling??). So dont worry too much it would have to be very fresh to catch anything like that.
It amazes me that people derive pleasure from circulting this rubbish
:lol: :lol:
