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| Eduarte delayed chemotherapy and instead took supplements for her cancer (AFP photo) |
(From Agence France-Presse)
Filipino
single mother Mary Ann Eduarte delayed chemotherapy for her breast cancer for
several years and instead took food supplements falsely promoted on social
media as cures for the deadly disease.
They
didn’t work and the cancer spread to her lungs and bones.
Eduarte
is one of many Filipinos duped by medical misinformation flooding social media
platforms, where they rank among the world’s heaviest users.
A shortage
of doctors, the difficulty of reaching a hospital in the archipelago, poor
health literacy, and fear of incurring huge medical bills have led many people
suffering from chronic conditions to seek alternative treatments online.
In
recent years, Agence France-Presse (AFP) digital investigation journalists have
seen an explosion in the volume of posts and paid advertisements promoting
unproven treatments for diseases, such as cancer.
The
trend was fueled by the COVID-19 pandemic, when healthcare systems were
overwhelmed and many were too scared to visit a hospital.
Eduarte,
47, who makes a living selling beauty products online, found a lump in her
right breast during a self-check in 2014.
She was
advised to have a biopsy to find out if it was cancer, but she was scared and
delayed having the procedure for two years.
‘Testimonials’
Instead,
she spent about P50,000 ($900) a month on food supplements, including drinks
made from tropical fruit and barley grass that she had seen advertised as
cancer cures on Facebook and YouTube.
She
finally agreed to have the biopsy in 2016, which confirmed the tumor was
malignant.
But she
refused chemotherapy, fearing it would make her sick and lose her hair, and
continued taking the supplements for another three years.
“I
really believed they would destroy my cancer cells because that’s what I was
being told by their marketing,” Eduarte told AFP at her home near Manila.
“They were
posting testimonials that said people were being cured.”
After
her cancer metastasized, Eduarte agreed to chemotherapy.
“I made
the wrong decision,” she admitted.
“Those
food supplements actually cost me more than if I had immediately sought
standard medical treatment.”
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| Some of the food supplements Eduarte took to cure her breast cancer (AFP photo) |
‘Out of pocket expenses’
Madonna
Realuyo, an oncologist at the Bicol Regional Hospital and Medical Center in
central Philippines, said online misinformation about cancer treatment was a
“serious problem.”
“Five
out of 10 patients I see ask me about something they have seen or read on the
internet—90 percent of the time the information is incorrect,” Realuyo said.
“Telling
them the correct information does not guarantee that they will listen to us or
believe us.”
The cost
of cancer treatment, which can reach millions of pesos, made patients
vulnerable to deceptive marketing of unproven products that are supposedly
cheaper.
“Once
you’re diagnosed with cancer, the reality is that there’s a lot of out-of-pocket
expenses,” said Aileen Antolin of the Philippine Foundation for Breast Cancer.
AFP has
a global team of journalists who debunk misinformation as part of the
third-party fact-checking program of Meta, the parent company of Facebook.
Fact-checkers
from around 90 organizations, including media outlets, check posts on Facebook,
WhatsApp, and Instagram.
AFP has
repeatedly debunked posts on Facebook that have falsely promoted products as
natural cures for cancer, including “Doc Atoie’s Finest Guyabano Wine,” which
was one of the products used by Eduarte.
Misinformation
The
drink was featured in hundreds of posts that were shared on Facebook pages with
tens, even hundreds, of thousands of followers.
The Food
and Drug Administration (FDA) told AFP it was not able to go after companies or
individuals falsely promoting products online because it still doesn’t have
guidelines for implementing a section of the 2009 law that established the
agency.
Instead,
it issues warnings on its website and social media pages.
“Our
powers are limited,” FDA lawyer Pamela Sevilla told AFP.
Meta’s
ad policy prohibits any “promises or suggestions of unrealistic outcomes” for
“health, weight loss or economic opportunity.”
It says
ads for over-the-counter medicines should comply with licenses and approvals
required by local laws.
These
ads can be removed from the platform once flagged, while posts that do not
directly violate Meta’s community standards but are rated as false by
third-party fact-checkers like AFP are labeled as misinformation and demoted so
they are less likely to appear in newsfeeds.
But when
AFP checked Meta’s ad library it found ads for “Doc Atoie’s Finest Guyabano
Wine” and some other products debunked by AFP still there.
Silenced by lawsuits
The
barrage of medical misinformation during the pandemic prompted Melbourne-based
doctor Adam Smith, who speaks Tagalog, to make YouTube videos identifying
misleading ads or posts.
“I
realized a huge number of people in the population believed they could treat
their medical illness with supplements and vitamins, which was crazy to me,”
Smith told AFP via Zoom.
But he
quit after being hit with several lawsuits by the companies whose products he
was exposing.
“These
companies and individuals are very happy to use the Philippine justice system
to silence free speech and to silence any criticism,” Smith said.
After
surviving cancer, Eduarte said she was now on a mission to educate others about
the dangers of online misinformation.
“I’m
telling you, having taken those food supplements, … they really did nothing to
cure my illness,” she said. —AFP
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