A bogus e-mail declaring that an HIV-positive man was recently caught pouring blood into a ketchup dispenser at a fast food restaurant has sparked off unnecessary panic in the community.

The e-mail is not only fake, but it is ?too ridiculous to take seriously?, Government declared yesterday. Even so, the word has spread over the last two days at a rate well beyond the speed of ketchup oozing from a bottle.

The chain letter, instructing the receiver to ?forward the message on to as many people as possible?, was sent to all Government directories on Wednesday, when it also hit the press, the international business sector, and private e-mails. Yesterday it spread even further, with at least one Government-run nursery school ? Happy Valley ? printing off copies and giving them to parents.

?I went berserk,? father Dennis Lambert told . ?They should at least let people know ? this is serious. Mostly everybody in Bermuda eats from fast food restaurants.?

Even the news that the e-mail was a fraud did not comfort him. ?Who says it can?t happen, hasn?t already happened?

?Nothing else scares me but this, stuff that could affect my children.? The threat of HIV, he added, ?could bring up a lot of different things?.

The e-mail states that within the last month an unnamed man, who was HIV-positive, was caught pouring blood into the ketchup dispenser at a fast food restaurant. It does not name the restaurant or say if it is local, does not mention who caught the man or what action was taken against him, and does not specify how he was carting the unknown quantity of blood around or what he was using to pour it into the dispenser ? though it does warn to only use ketchup that has been sealed in closed ketchup packets.

Government?s Chief Medical Officer John Cann pointed out that while there are always issues about the use and safety of unsealed food products ? whether in a restaurant, on a supermarket shelf, or any other public place ? information on how HIV is spread is readily available to the community. Dr. Cann also reminded the public that HIV cannot be contracted by eating foods.

The Department of Health, he said, will provide any concerned member of the public with information and advice on any health-related topic.

If anyone has any real information or concerns on such an issue, a Government spokesperson said, they should bring it to the attention of the Department and Government will certainly respond. Dr. Cann added that it was a shame that people have nothing better to do than send anonymous and unsubstantiated rumours through e-mail systems.