Health DG Appears To Disagree With Health Minister On Warm Water Claim

On Thursday, our new Health Minister Datuk Seri Dr Adham Baba went on Live TV and gave a tip to Malaysians on preventing COVID-19.

The claim he made was one that has been circulating on WhatsApp groups for a while now that the novel coronavirus “doesn’t like high temperatures” and that the virus would be flushed down into the digestive system by drinking warm water.

The ministry on the other hand seems to disagree with the statement by its minister. Yesterday, Health department director-general Datuk Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said the Health Ministry’s approach for patient treatment or management is always based on evidence.

“The practice of the Ministry of Health, whether for treatment or management, is based on evidence. Evidence-based medicine is one of our pillars in terms of embracing a practice before we can deal with any issues with regards to certain practice”.

“In general […] our decision to treat and manage patients is based on science and data,” he said.

Dr Noor Hisham was responding to a questions where he was a asked to comment on Health Minister Dr. Adham Baba’s claim that the Covid-19 infection could be prevented by drinking warm water.