Medical society not spared from scam abuse

The National Kidney Foundation (NKF) has recently come out to condemn fake claims made by two viral social media posts attempting to promote a product to cure kidney disease.

NKF was made privy to these scams when they were contacted by members of the public to confirm the legitimacy of the product. Further investigations led to the viral posts, which included a tampered photo of NKF Malaysia, that was taken at an event in 2019.

The fake social media posts in question promote a product called Jisheng Kidney Qi Tablets as a cure for kidney disease without dialysis. NKF has made it clear that it does not endorse products that make false claims of curing kidney disease. In the social media posts, the wordings on the banner held in a group photo were replaced with the words ‘No dialysis required. Completely cure kidney disease.’ To date, there is no known cure for chronic kidney disease (CKD), but there are treatments that can help, in addition to receiving an organ transplant.

NKF Malaysia chairman Dato’ Dr Zaki Morad Mohamad Zaher said: “We take such scams very seriously, especially one which is portrayed to be endorsed by NKF. We would like to reiterate that we do not endorse products that claim to cure kidney disease, especially ones promoted by external links which are not related to NKF.”

He added that the people at NKF provide advice on the prevention and treatment of kidney diseases based on evidence and consultation with their panel of experts. “Over the years, there have been multiple claims made by pharmaceutical individuals and others in the medical line about products that can prevent kidney disease or cure it. However, the public is advised to verify such claims either with their doctors or NKF first.”

Following the discovery of the scam, NKF has lodged a police report and filed a report with both the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) and the Ministry of Health (MOH), and pledged to work closely with the relevant authorities to bring the responsible parties to justice.