Did worker infect Maaza, Pepsi and other drinks with Ebola virus? Fact Check

Warnings are spreading across social media that warn readers not to consume drinks including Maaza, Coca Cola, Pepsi, Mountain Dew and Sprite since a worker has contaminated those products with his blood that has been infected with the Ebola virus.

The warning, of which you can see an example below, is just the latest addition to the “disgruntled worker infecting products” genre of hoaxes, of which there have been many variants spreading for year.

Urgent forward
NOTE:
Important msg from Hyderabad police to all over India:
For the next few weeks do not drink any soft drink like Maaza, cococola, pepsi, mountain dew, sprite as a worker from one of these company has added his blood contaminated with Ebola virus . It ws shown yesterday on NDTV… Pls forward this msg urgently to people you care… Take Care!!
Share it as much as u can.
Please pass it on to your families in india

It is false. This type of scarelore attempts to lure the reader into believing a disgruntled worker has infected products with his contaminated blood in order to spread an infection. In this case it is Ebola, though in other examples of this hoax it is often HIV or AIDS infected blood that is quoted. In no cases are the warnings true.

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Just like with the HIV or AIDS variants of this hoax, Ebola is not known to spread through food or drink (with the exception of some types of “bushmeat” – meat from wild animals.) The CDC in the United States especially addresses this type of scarelore nonsense and notes that –

There has been no evidence in previous Ebola outbreak investigations of the virus spreading through food contaminated with the blood or body fluids of an infected food worker.

The disgruntled worker variant of hoaxes have been spreading in various incarnations for years, and are never true. Popular examples of this hoax have previously claimed that a disgruntled Pepsi worker infected the fizzy drinks with HIV or a disgruntled Cadbury’s worker infected the chocolate products with HIV. This is just a spin-off from those earlier hoaxes with only the products and virus changed.

Additionally, despite the claims in the warning above, no police force or NDTV have released any statement related to this warning.