Tourism manager wants to cap Panama dengue reports

PANAMA government authorities are calling on local media to ease up on publishing news about the dengue epidemic in the country, because of its effect on tourism.

As Panama America, puts it they are “calling for the prudent management of information on the subject, believing that there is much less impact from the disease in Panama than in other countries in the region.”

Tourism is the sector that has been the most affected by the epidemic of dengue in the country, with the cancelation of eight Panama bound tour packages although it is a small number of cancellations the Ministry of Tourism believes that it is important to assess the situation says Panama America.
"… Our country has the best statistics for dengue in the region and now we are being punished, which should not be happening, because if we compare to Costa Rica, we can see a big difference, since this country has 50,000 cases of dengue, and we have only about 3000," said the head of Tourism, Salomon Shamah.

" … The media has given a lot of publicity to the issue, which has caused the ambassadors of Spain and Israel to request information to notify their countries and to cancel scheduled trips."
Meanwhile the Ministry of Health converted a health alert to an epidemic and has been carrying out an aggressive education campaign alerting citizens to ways to prevent the spread of the disease.
There have been seven confirmed deaths, with at least one still under investigation, and there are well over 3,000 cases, many of them in hospital.
Panama America is a pro government newspaper with President Ricardo Martinelli as a major shareholder.