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February 7th, 2012 
FAKE NEWS for the Zionist agenda
Authorities in the Valencia region – which is governed by the conservative
Popular Party (PP) – were accused of playing down the threat to public
health to avoid damaging the reputation of resort, whose economy is reliant
on tourism.
Lluis Torro, a member of the Valencia parliament for the left-wing Esquerra
Unida party, said: “The ministry of health has, with the excuse of not
wanting to alarm the population, hidden relevant information when they
should have taken the necessary preventative measures.”
Luis Rosado, the minister of health for the region, defended his handling of
the crisis and the fact that it took more than six weeks to warn the public
and close the hotel.
“We did what we had to do until we had definitive confirmation of the
epidemic,” he said on Saturday.
Local reports claimed hotel staff were also made aware of the danger in
December and told to take extra precautions but not to mention it to guests.
Saga Holidays, which caters for the over-50s and whose clients were among
those affected, was furious to learn that the company had not been made
aware of the possible danger.
“We do not hesitate when it comes to potential health issues for our
customers,” said a spokesman, Paul Green. “I am shocked to learn
that there may have been earlier incidents – about which we were unaware.”
It was not until Saga Holidays requested a full inspection of the hotel’s
plumbing system that any action was taken.
The tour operator had been informed on January 14 that one of their guests had
been treated for a form of pneumonia caused by the legionella bacteria on
return to the UK.
“We immediately informed health authorities and sent out an independent
inspector to carry out tests at the hotel,” said Mr Green.
“The tests did not reveal traces of the bug – most likely because the
hotel had added extra chlorination to the water system on the advice of the
Health Ministry the day before – but a report concluded that the plumbing
system needed adjustment,” explained Mr Green.
Over the following days the tour company transferred its guests to the nearby
Ifach Hotel and warned all those who had stayed at the Diamante Beach Hotel
in the previous six weeks to be aware of the outbreak and seek medical
attention if they showed flu-like symptoms.
Legionnaires’ disease is caught by inhaling minute droplets of water
containing the bacteria and is often passed through faulty air-conditioning
units or plumbing systems. It is not passed from person to person.
It causes a potentially fatal form of pneumonia and is most likely to affect
the elderly and infirm.
“Unfortunately two men, aged 73 and 78 died in the hotel rooms on Jan 26
and Jan 31. We were told that their deaths were unrelated to the
Legionnaires’ outbreak but that was reassessed once with the death of
another of our clients in the Benidorm clinic last Wednesday,” said Mr
Green.
Three British pensioners, are still being treated in the Clinica Benidorm, a
small modern private hospital, where relatives have flown out from the UK to
be at their bedsides. The patients are said to be responding well to
treatment.
Another British man has already been discharged as well as four Spaniards who
were treated and recovered from the illness.
On returning to the UK, five people were treated in hospitals for the illness
and all but one have now been discharged.
In Calpe, a resort along the coast from Benidorm on Spain’s eastern
Mediterranean coast, behind the imposing glass facade of the four-star AR
Diamante Beach spa hotel, sanitation teams were this weekend carrying out
cleaning of its 283 rooms.
Unitursa, the company that owns AR hotel group in Calpe, did not respond to
requests for comment, but is expected to re-open the Diamante within the
week.
The mayor of the resort, famed for its long white sand beaches and popular
with Britons seeking winter sun, resort urged calm.
“There is absolutely no need for alarm,” Cesar Sanchez Perez of the
PP told a press conference at the town hall.
“I can assure that we have acted with speed and carried out all safety
measures according to strict European protocol to deal with this health
issue, to stop contagion and clean the installation,” he said.
“The very last thing Calpe needs at this moment is a panic in these
difficult economic times when tourism is so important and provides so many
jobs. The message I want to give is this problem is it’s dealt with and it’s
business as usual.”
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