No explanation for U-turn on swine flu victim report

The health authorities are refusing to disclose what led them to issue an incorrect statement that a 32-year-old swine flu victim suffered from a condition that may have aggravated chest infections.

When contacted yesterday healthcare director general Ray Busuttil said: "We had information and due to our promise (to inform the public) we passed it on. After some time, more information came through that changed the position we had transmitted initially and we passed it on correctly. That was the situation - no more, no less. I have no further comments to make on the case.

"I am not hiding anything but protecting the confidentiality of the patient. It's easier for me to say what the exact case was but I'm bound by respect for the patient," he said.

Last Monday, the health authorities issued a statement through the Department of Information informing the public that Justin Chircop died of "complications from the A H1N1 (Swine Flu) virus". The department added that the victim suffered from a condition that could exacerbate chest infections.

But last Thursday the health authorities issued a second statement, seemingly contradicting the one circulated by the DOI.

Following an autopsy it emerged that Mr Chircop, the fourth person to die of swine flu in Malta, had no other illnesses and had succumbed to a severe attack of swine flu.

This meant that Mr Chircop, a popular radio deejay, was the first Maltese swine flu fatality not to have been in the "vulnerable group" because the other three all had underlying conditions that could aggravate the illness.

When contacted, Dr Busuttil said the health authorities had never said Mr Chircop had one of the conditions that would have put him in the vulnerable group - which include the elderly, pregnant women and children under five.

"He was never one of the people who fell within the vulnerable group... Our message is that the case of Justin Chircop shows that the influenza can impact people who are not in this group. This is not just in Malta but across the world and, as health authorities, we were expecting that we'd have such a death," he said.

He said Mr Chircop's death did not mean that swine flu had become more dangerous. The health authorities had always said that healthy individuals were also at risk. Worldwide, between 20 and 50 per cent of swine flu victims were perfectly healthy before they died.

Dr Busuttil added that complications due to swine flu could arise for several reasons. People could get a bad bout of the infection or develop more symptoms.

He urged people to follow the advice given by the health authorities to take the swine flu vaccine, stay indoors if they had flu-like symptoms and stay in touch with their doctor if symptoms persisted.