The Thai Embassy in Phnom Penh has rejected rumours circulating in Cambodia that some canned foods made in Thailand have become tainted with HIV, describing the reports as “absolutely false”.

The embassy released a statement on Saturday urging people not to continue spreading the rumours, which it said spread via text messages and on social media and had falsely claimed the Thai government confirmed the canned food to be contaminated.

“The embassy would like to state that the news is absolutely false,” the embassy’s statement said. In fact, HIV can only be transmitted through body fluids from an infected person, like semen or blood.

Jirawuth Suwanna-Ari, the embassy’s minister counselor of commercial affairs, said yesterday that the embassy had also contacted Camcontrol, which inspects imports, to deny the reports, which he said spread mostly on Facebook, Line and WhatsApp.

“They understand that this kind of message is nonsense,” the official said via email. “Camcontrol trusts health certificates issued by the Thai government and some other international organisations.”