Director of the Institute for Public Health Igor Galić reacted to the text entitled "Missing measures against jaundice", which was published on Friday, October 7. We transmit the reaction in its entirety:
"In the text, it is stated that 'under the law, the epidemic can be reported by the competent Ministry of Health upon the proposal of the Institute.'
Article 15 of the Law on the Protection of the Population from Infectious Diseases ("Official Gazette of Montenegro", no. 15/16, 68/20 and 136/20) stipulates that the Ministry of Health monitors the movement of infectious diseases on the territory of Montenegro and declares the occurrence of an epidemic of infectious diseases. diseases of greater epidemiological importance, declares an infected or endangered area and orders the measures that must be implemented in that case, and that this order is issued on the proposal of the Institute. Also, Article 6 of the Law defines that 'epidemic of greater epidemiological significance means the occurrence of severe clinical forms of infectious diseases and/or death from infectious diseases, where there is a risk of severe economic and social consequences, cross-border transmission of diseases, as well as the recurrence of cases removed or eradicated infectious diseases'.
In this case, in relation to all the elements listed above, the aforementioned epidemic does not meet the conditions to be declared an epidemic of major epidemiological significance, and therefore the Institute for Public Health and the Ministry of Health did not announce it.
The hygiene-epidemiological services of the health center in Kotor and Herceg Novi, as competent institutions, acted in accordance with the Law and reported the epidemic, considering that Article 41 of the Law on the Protection of the Population from Infectious Diseases ("Official Gazette of Montenegro", No. 15/2016, 68/2020 and 136/2020) stipulated that: "health institutions and other legal entities that provide health care services are obliged to report an epidemic of an infectious disease".
Article 18 stipulates that "competent health institutions are obliged to carry out epidemiological surveillance and immediately implement measures to prevent, suppress, remove and eradicate infectious diseases". In the sense of the above, preventive anti-epidemic measures must be submitted to institutions and legal entities by the local hygiene-epidemiological services of the health centers in whose jurisdiction the epidemic is, and not by the Institute for Public Health. According to the information we have, the hygiene-epidemiological services recommended anti-epidemic measures and visited institutions with a higher risk in the territory of the mentioned municipalities. Therefore, it is not within the competence of the Institute for Public Health whether to recommend anti-epidemic measures to institutions or municipal bodies and services in this case.
In accordance with the legal obligations, as well as the good practice implemented by the Institute for Public Health as an institution at the tertiary level of health care, the Institute has been informed and provides expert support in the events since the beginning of the events in Herceg Novi and Kotor regarding the occurrence of citizens contracting the hepatitis A virus. on the field. On the occasion of these events, in accordance with international obligations, the Institute informed the European Center for the Control and Prevention of Infectious Diseases with whose recommendations it coordinates its activities, and organized the sampling, transport and analysis of samples suspected of the presence of the hepatitis A virus to the Croatian Institute of Public Health at further investigations. We remind you that according to the Law on Media published in the Official Gazette of Montenegro, No. 82/20, Article 31 stipulates that "before publishing information about a certain event, phenomenon or personality, with due journalistic attention, check its origin, veracity and completeness'.
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Taking into account all of the above, we ask that you publish this explanation in the next edition of your daily newspaper and in that way adequately inform the public and correct the damage you have caused to the Institute as a tertiary public health institution from integrity by publishing such a text, because it is in accordance with the article 39 of the aforementioned Law on Media specifies that 'publication of information that may harm honor and reputation is permitted only if the information is accurate, reports on matters of public interest and contributes to the right to information', which was not the case this time", the reaction concludes.
The journalist's answer will be published on Monday
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