Facts about hand holes and insects, apparently
A disgusting number of hand-held photos has been circulating in chat groups lately. The hole is like a honeycomb. In the photo mentioned, the hole happened because of an insect bite. Mentioned, the incident was mostly in Thailand and Myanmar.
"Attention for all members, informs all families and relatives, if you see insects like in a photo, never touch it," said the chain message. According to the sender of the message, the person who touches the insect will experience tremendous pain. Also, no cure or cure has yet been found.
The Director General of Disease Prevention and Control of the Ministry of Health (Kemenkes) Prof. M. Subuh immediately dismissed the truth of the photo. "That's a hoax," he said firmly.
According to him, insect bites are allergens which cause an itchy effect. The body naturally can do compensation in the form of reflex scratching or removing antihistamines (antigatal). That way, insect bites do not directly result in injuries as in the circulating news. Especially by just touching. "Until now, insects and injuries have not been found like that," he said.
Prof. Subuh's statement was also reinforced by the explanation of insect taxonomists from the Bogor Agricultural Institute (IPB) Dr. Ir Purnama Hidayat MSc. He explained, the insects in the photo entered the Belostomatidae family. "Insects do exist and can bite, but they are not dangerous," he said.
Hidayat said the insects in the photo were male sex. It was seen from his back carrying a female egg. "This type of male insect is more agile so it can better protect eggs from predatory attacks," he said. Many types of insects in Indonesia. Usually live in water and eat small animals.
Message hoaxes like that are not only spread in Indonesia. Jawa Pos found a similar message in English which spread to several countries. The difference is, in the message mentioned, hands are hollow because of insects that are found in India. Not Thailand and Myanmar as in chain messages that speak Indonesian.
From the search of this newspaper, it turns out that the photo of the hole in the hand was an engineering make-up with molding techniques. Tutorial to make the effect of the hand with many holes scattered on the internet. Including the video on YouTube. A make-up artist from the Netherlands named Cynthia Koning even sells tutorials to create these disgusting hand effects. He is priced at USD 4.95 in a specialty handicraft marketplace, Etsy.com.
Apparently, Cynthia made those disgusting hands from the ingredients we used to eat with a piece of bread, peanut butter. He claimed it took two hours to make the effect of the holey hand. Cynthia's work was then misused by irresponsible people. Spread and flavored sentences to scare people.
The hoax information maker seems to target people who suffer from trypophobia. That is fear when you see a hollow object. For example honeycomb, lotus flower seeds, to just a sponge hole. Trypophobia comes from Greek. Namely trypa which means hole and phobos which means fear.
People who experience such phobias will usually feel nauseous, itchy on their own, and acute goosebumps. "Ouch, I saw the disco goosebumps. Amused ... "replied a woman who received the message in a WhatsApp group.
Fact
The palms with honeycomb holes in the photo are not caused by insect bites. But the results of make-up engineering with molding techniques. There are no insects that can cause such injuries.
Source: jawapos.com