Does the internet harm health?

doi:10.1136/bmj.324.7331.238a

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Some evidence exists that the internet does harm health

Robert Kiley, head of systems strategy (r.kiley@wellcome.ac.uk)

Wellcome Library for the History and Understanding of Medicine, Wellcome Trust, London NW1 2BE
Research Unit for Cybermedicine and eHealth, Department of Clinical Social Medicine, University of Heidelberg, Heidelberg 69115, Germany

EDITOR—I would take issue with the statement that there is almost no evidence to support the claim that the internet harms health.1 A search of Medline, for example, identifies a report in the Annals of Internal Medicine (http://www.annals.org/issues/v133n11/nts/200012050-00006.html) that describes the case of a patient who died of kidney and liver failure after using hydrazine sulphate (as recommended by the Kathy Keeton website, http://www.kathykeeton-cancer.com/) as an alternative treatment for cancer.2

On another occasion a nurse in the United States was charged with manslaughter after giving MICON—a non-toxic treatment given over 24 hours (http://www.edensinstitute.com/)—to a patient with cancer (see www.ncahf.org/digest/01-18.html).

In addition to these …