SWINE FLU cases more than doubled in the last week, the health ministry said on Thursday. At the Makarios Hospital the number of children being seen per day had risen from 20-30 to 60-70 in the last week, while at the Nicosia General Hospital’s flu clinic the number of cases was up from 60 to 140.
The ministry’s decision to release figures about cases is aimed at persuading more people to have flu jabs. The government’s free vaccination programme started on Monday but very few people from the group covered by the first phase – healthcare personnel and people considered high-risk, between 15 and 45 years – showed up at the hospitals and flu clinics. Although the turn-out improved later in the week, it was still much lower than expected.
A few months ago, people were keen to be vaccinated, ordering jabs via the internet or paying private doctors over the odds for the jab, while newspapers were complaining because the first shipment of the anti-flu vaccination would have arrived in the Cyprus in November. And now that the programme has kicked off very few people want to be vaccinated, because they are afraid of possible side-effects – clinical trials for the vaccine were inadequate it has been argued.
The Health Ministry recruited the help of the Medical Association which suggested that private doctors helped out with the vaccinations as many people would be more willing to have the jab if it had the approval of their personal doctor whom they trusted. This measure could help, but best way to re-assure people, would be for the health minister, the ministry’s chief medical officer and a host of well-known doctors to have the jab, in front of the TV cameras.
Health minister Christos Patsalides was wrong to say he would not be vaccinated because he was not eligible (not in a high-risk group), as this sounded like a cheap excuse and reinforced people’s fears about possible, undesirable side effects. Once he had been asked whether he would have the jab he had an obligation to say ‘yes’. By saying ‘no’ he has discouraged people from having the jab.
Our View II: Leave the gambling grannies alone
THE POLICE clampdown on gambling turned into farce last Sunday when officers raided a house in Limassol at 6pm and arrested 42 women over the age of 75 for playing cards, with money. The grannies, which included a 95-year-old, were charged and released, while the police confiscated 546 chips, 530 playing cards and some €100 in cash to use as evidence at the forthcoming trial.
We cannot condone law-breaking, but surely there is more serious law-breaking for the police to tackle in Limassol than a group of grannies enjoying the thrill of playing cards for money on a Sunday afternoon. In fairness, the police arrived at the grannies’ gambling den after receiving complaints by neighbours about the noise the elderly ladies made when they were leaving!
Surely the grannies should also have been charged with disturbing the peace, as this was the suspected law-breaking that neighbours reported to the police.
