The press as a vehicle for the introduction of a fashionable disease]

Two journalists wrote a book on HPU (haemopyrrol-lactamuria), a hitherto unknown metabolic disease that was alleged to cause a whole range of complaints. The book is based on the ideas of a biochemist who is also the director of a commercial organisation that offers a diagnostic test as well as a therapy (nutrition supplement) for HPU. The release of the book was accompanied by a press release that provoked various publications in both biomedical journals and the lay press. In response to these reports, the director sometimes registered a complaint with the Dutch Council for Journalism, but on other occasions he did not. The content of this book is in no way based on scientific research. In retrospect, it is obvious that the authors, the biochemist and the publishing company have joint commercial ties. All professional standards of scientific research and journalistic decency are thus being violated. In this way, they are doing harm to the independence and integrity of researchers and journalists in the public image. All the activities of the press seem to have been an essential part of a deliberate marketing strategy for the introduction of a non-disease.