The government of the little island of Malta in the Mediterranean is taking the bird flu threat seriously and has to be commended for its efforts to ensure that it citizens are all prepared to deal with an emergency situation. The Maltese government has already recieved its supplies of the Tamiflu drug and the public were urged to attend bird flu information meeetings in March as well as to buy some of the Tamiflu drug for them and their families. The Maltese government organised information to be sent to all Schools in the country with advice and information about the H5N1 virus and was also one of the first countries to contact Roche Pharmaceuticals and order a stockpile of the Tamiflu drug for its 400,000 citizens.

Now the bird flu preparedness is going up one more level with a billboard adverts campaign that urges all people to regularly wash their hands in order to prevent a potential way of spreading the influenza pandemic. The billboard campaign is the second step of the national preparedness campaign that has been organised by the Pandemic Preparedness Committee set up by the Health Division. The idea is to encourage good and hygenic practices that will be able help to reduce and ward off some of the dangerous contagious effects of the H5N1 bird flu virus.

The hygiene messages will be covering hygiene and the preparation of food as well as safety linked to well cooked food. The campaign encourages all to wash fruit and vegetables and to place uncooked meat at the lower part of the fridge. The campaign will be running through the summer months until September 2006. The government is also setting up a website that will be able to give people more information about the H5N1 virus.