TRENTON — It's more contagious than HIV/AIDS, a sweeping epidemic with the power to turn women's genitals blue.

“Blue waffle disease” deserves the city's attention, Councilwoman Kathy McBride said at a City Council meeting last night.

During the councilmember comment period of the meeting, McBride said she received a concerned call from a city man asking what Trenton was doing to combat “blue waffle disease,” and said she hoped health and human services director James Brownlee could provide her with more information on the mysterious disease she had never heard of.

"It's already claimed 85 lives and there's a case here in Trenton," McBride said. "It is a virus that is 10 times greater at this point than the AIDS virus."

In fact, it appears that McBride fell victim to an internet hoax and April Fool's Day prank.

“Blue waffle disease” is considered an internet urban legend, a fake sexually transmitted disease said to tint women's genitals blue. A graphic image of a woman supposedly infected with the disease has circulated on several websites.

The nonprofit Women's Health Foundation, seeking to clear up confusion around the hoax, published an online post in 2011 debunking stories about "blue waffle" after a middle school health teacher said his students kept asking about it.

“There is no disease known as 'blue waffle disease' in the medical world," Dr. Amy Whitaker, an assistant professor of obstetrics/gynecology at the University of Chicago Hospital, told the foundation. "There is no disease that causes a blue appearance on the external genitalia. I had never heard of this until you wrote to our section…and asked about it.”

“The common belief among medical professionals with whom I have spoken or e-mailed about this is that it is a hoax; the picture and 'fake' disease used to lure people into some web site,” she said.

McBride did not return a call for comment today. At last night's council meeting, business administrator Sam Hutchinson said he did not know anything about the disease but would ask Brownlee to look into McBride's concerns.

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