Media criticised by Gharb council

The Gharb council has criticised journalists for passing on information which could lead to the identification of people who were infected with the (A) H1N1 virus.

It said it was working with the Health Department and with Parliamentary Secretary for Prevention Mario Galea so that all the necessary precautions would be taken to protect victims.

The council said that while the media were mentioning the Gozitan victims’ localities, this was not being done for the cases in Malta. This was causing alarm and negatively affecting tourism.

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Article © Allied Newspapers Ltd., printed on Monday, November 23, 2009. This article is for personal use only, and should not be distributed.

Comments

R Scicluna (on 9/7/09)

Prosit David.

only the Gozitan towns are mantioned. Typical Maltese......

D fenech (on 9/7/09)

Typical Gozitan 'omerta' mentality!
How petty!

K. Camilleri (on 9/7/09)

100% TRUE!

J. Borg (on 9/7/09)

Sure, sure. Let's keep the public in the dark as to which localities have been points of infection in order to protect Gharb's "tourist industry". Who cares that by giving out such information people may be better protected. And by the way, I had no idea that Gharb was a tourist mecca these days.

charmaine magro (on 9/7/09)

Mr Gharb mayorl.. whenever you have anything going on in your town and which will attract tourists - including us Maltese fools who fork out hundreds of liri in your many 'farmhouses' for which some never get a fiscal receipt - you make it a point to advertise this event . Now that your little town , unluckily, has quite a number of people carrying the swine flu, you dont want the media to let US know.

Could you stop seeing us all as cash cows, and behave in a more responsible manner?? Yes, we should be warned to stay away from Gharb for the time being, for our, and our loved ones' sake. Thank you media for informing us about everything.

In the meantime, to all the sick people in all of Malta and every corner of Gozo, take care, and get well soon.

L Debono (on 8/7/09)

The Gharb council can criticize all they want. This is not some thing that should be kept secret.

If the infected people are not going to quarantine them selves, and act responsibly, (so far we already seen a considerable spread of this virus), it is in the public's best interest to know who the infected people are.

If this is not taken seriously, the consequences will be unforgiving. 6 years ago during the SARS EPIDEMIC, many strict measures were put in place in the affected areas and infected people were ordered to stay in at all cost.