Claim: A Facebook video featuring a journalist from Arise TV and an ex-Minister of Health has surfaced, in which the former minister claims that there is a permanent cure for hypertension.
Verdict: False! There is still no cure for hypertension, and the clip featuring this claim is a deepfake.
Full Text
Among a class of ailments that defy orthodox treatment, hypertension is perhaps one of the most popular. Still the search for a lifelong cure remains on the front burner of medical research.
On May 28, a Facebook page named Nature Media shared a 41-second video of an interview between a female broadcast journalist from Arise TV and the former Minister of Health Osagie Ehanire. The clip begins when the journalist asks, “Did you really get fired because you discovered a cure for hypertension?”
In response, the minister said, “Yes, it’s true. The government is hiding that a remedy has been discovered in Nigeria that lowers blood pressure to 120 in just a few hours. In just one treatment, the blood vessels are completely rid of cholesterol, and high blood pressure disappears forever.”
He went on by stating that failure to keep the blood vessels clean will lead to incurable diseases. “I insisted that the remedies should appear in pharmacies, but it is not profitable for the government, and I was fired.”
The ex-minister further mentioned that about 50,000 Nigerians had been cured after using the drug. “It is a natural solution that you can learn more about by clicking on the Learn button,” he added.
Right above the clip was a caption urging users to click to learn more. The video has amassed 19 comments, 26 shares, and 1 comment as of the time Prime Progress reviewed the Facebook page.
Yet the footage raised more concerns than it allayed. First, the video was rather short, without a clear shot of the journalist and the minister in the same studio. Second, the journalist’s position appeared straightforward—as if reading news—and did not match the sideways position of her supposed guest.
What’s more, the lips, movement of the eyes, and facial expressions did not sync properly, which is characteristic of doctored clips. Lastly, the ambiguous claim about the cure for hypertension further warranted verification. Thus, we sought to verify the claim.
Verification
The clip was subjected to tools like Deepware.ai and the InVid video verifier, but the corrupted nature of the video made it impossible to process results for the URL and link.
Prime Progress parsed the clip into keyframes and used some of the images for a reverse-image search. No results similar to or matching all the images surfaced.
Furthermore, the image was used to conduct an in-depth forensic search, suggesting that the image had been tampered with several times..
The filters applied to the image detected anomalies in previous processes of creation and compression, indicating that elements were either removed or added to the image.
Prime Progress conducted a thorough search but found no video or report corroborating the claim. Results continue to affirm that hypertension has no permanent cure, though there are available treatments to reduce excessively high blood pressure.
Conclusion
The video claiming a permanent cure for hypertension, featuring the former health minister, lacks credibility. Extensive analyses reveal manipulation, and no substantial evidence supports the claim. As such, it is prudent to approach such assertions with skepticism until verified by reliable sources.
A Facebook video featuring a journalist from Arise TV and former Nigerian Minister of Health, Osagie Ehanire, falsely claims a permanent cure for hypertension. The ex-minister in the video asserts that a remedy exists in Nigeria capable of lowering blood pressure to normal levels and eliminating high blood pressure permanently, but states that the government is hiding this information for profit reasons.
The video raised suspicions due to its short length, disconnected visual elements, and mismatched audio-visual synchronization, indicating potential tampering. Verification efforts using tools like Deepware.ai and the InVid video verifier, along with reverse-image searches, suggested the video had been manipulated.
Prime Progress confirmed no credible evidence supports the claim of a permanent hypertension cure. The video is deemed a deepfake, highlighting the need for skepticism and reliance on verified sources regarding such medical claims.
