Christofias urges calm over swine flu

PRESIDENT Dimitris Christofias has echoed the pleas of health and government officials calling on the public not to panic over the spread of the H1N1 flu virus, which he described as a “normal flu, which has not mutated and is benign.”

Answering questions from the media after a visit to the Institute of Neurology and Genetics, Christofias said that the spread of the issue as priority news “causes nothing but panic and damage to the world and Cyprus”

“In other countries there are a lot of things being hidden, but in Cyprus absolutely nothing is being hidden whatsoever,” he said.

In response to what most medical officials have labelled as a total overreaction of both the press and the public to the flu, Christofias said: “We are not telling people ‘ignore the flu virus’… every year we catch the flu. I hope people will confront these issues with calm… If someone feels unwell and presents any of the symptoms that have been mentioned, visit a doctor.”

He also said that the Health Ministry was “continually trying to inform (the public)” and that his request to the media was that they display greater care and place a greater emphasis on informing rather than inflaming.

Finally, in response to a question over whether the virus was especially concentrated in any specific area of the island, he replied: “There are no areas where it is concentrated… the virus is imported, but there are no specific areas.”

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