A woman used the WhatsApp messaging service so much that she ended up in hospital for treatment.
A report by Cellular, said the 37-year-old woman chatted so much on WhatsApp over the last Christmas holiday that she had to be treated for severe pain in the wrist.
The woman, who is medical practitioner, was 27 weeks pregnant at the time and had no history of trauma and had not engaged in any excessive physical activity in the previous days.
The source said on Christmas Day she spent an estimated six hours holding a modestly weighty mobile phone while sending vast quantities of messages.
She was diagnosed with bilateral extensor pollicis longus tendinitis of the thumb, which they nicknamed “WhatsAppitis”.
Cellular reports:
The treatment consisted of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs and complete abstinence from using the phone to send messages – although she ignored that rule on New Years Eve.
A so-called Nintendinitis was first described in 1990, and since then several injuries associated with video games and new technologies have been reported. Initially reported in children, such cases are now seen in adults.
Tenosynovitis caused by texting with mobile phones could well be an emerging disease. The Lancet warned that physicians need to be mindful of these new disorders.
