Hantavirus has already arrived in Europe and health authorities in several European Union countries have begun taking measures to isolate and monitor people exposed to the virus. This mainly concerns passengers on the Hondius cruise ship, where a hotbed of infection was identified and has become the focus of international alarm for days.
France imposed strict isolation on its repatriated citizens after one of them showed symptoms while returning by plane. Greece announced a 45-day quarantine for its passenger. Australia is sending a special plane to evacuate citizens, while Norway activated an ambulance plane with personnel trained to transport patients with dangerous infections.
At the same time, the WHO and European health ministries are communicating carefully: without panic, but also without hiding the risk. Information is published regularly, explaining the modes of transmission, the incubation period and isolation measures. European authorities are trying to maintain a balance between transparency and avoiding public alarm.
Meanwhile, in Albania, the Ministry of Health continues to communicate with the sterile language of institutional propaganda, as if every international alarm were just an image problem and not an issue that requires public information.
No serious clarification. No public guidance. No information on what hantavirus is, how it is transmitted, what citizens traveling should keep in mind or what protocols exist in case of monitoring. At a time when EU countries are openly talking about isolation, monitoring and contact tracing, in Albania it seems that the strategy remains the same: silence, minimization and reassuring propaganda.
And this is where the paradox arises. Albania talks every day about European integration, about opening chapters and European standards. But European standards are not just photos with flags in Brussels. European standards are also the way it communicates with citizens in moments of public concern.
Because citizens don't need to panic. They need information.
If Albania is entering the European Union, perhaps it would be minimal for the Ministry of Health to start behaving like a European institution: informing, not propagandizing.
