Topo Gigio against the swine flu

A month ago the Minister of Health launched an advertising campaign about the swine flu. The television ad features the room of "Topo Gigio", a beloved character of very old children series. Topo Gigio explains what to do against the flu:
1. wash your hands well and often with water and soap.
2. cover your nose and mouth with tissues when you cough and sneeze, then throw the tissue away
3. if you have forgotten to wash your hands, don't touch your eyes, nose and mouth: flu virus spreads in this way
4. remember to open the window to air the house
5. if you got, a cold, difficulties in breathing, cough, headache, stay home and call the doctor.
The television ad ends with the catchline "Swine flu is a common flu. These five rules helps fighting it". The ad has received mixed reactions. Many people felt offended by the use of a children puppet.

New strain, old problem

It's becoming clear that many troubles caused by the pandemic in Italy are actually old problems of the national primary care service. For example, many local doctors don't know what to do, as Corriere della Sera has reported. They haven't been informed very well, but this lack of communication and technical updates from health authorities is often true for other illness.
Another problem is that it's difficult to ask advice to local doctors, even by phone call. So people rush to the emergency room (again Corriere della Sera). But this is a common occurrence in Italy, where it's hard to get a home visit by doctors.
And there's so much difference in flu vaccine campaign in the country, because each regional government has a different approach with a wide range of efficiency. If the strain of the flu virus is  new, the problems look old.

A new web site

Today the Italian Ministry of Labour and Health has launched a web site, www.fermailvirus.it. The service is aimed at the general public, mainly at parents. There's a special section for pregnant women and other paregraphs for small children. Instead, there's no mention of another group at risk, people with chronic lung disease (I wonder why). And no information for doctors and nurses (they have other sources). The campaing is quite new for Italy: on the web site there's a lot of stuff about recognizing symptoms, things to do, suggestions etc. It's good, but I prefer the CDC web site, because there are more information and it doesn't speak to me as I were a child.