Minister for Inclusion and Quality of Life Julia Farrugia Portelli and MEP Alex Agius Saliba, together with Anatole Baldacchino, a person with a disability due to the Thalidomide pill, started working to put pressure at European level to allow those who have suffered a disability as a result of this pill to be compensated by the company, as has happened in Germany and the United Kingdom.
Thalidomide is a tablet that was taken by pregnant women in the late 1950s and 1960s. Through this collaboration, pressure will be exerted at European and even bilateral level to reach the same agreement that was reached in Germany. and in the United Kingdom it serves as a basis for victims to be compensated by the company even in our country.
Important work is currently underway to gather information on people in Malta and Gozo who are still alive and suffering from this disability. It is estimated that between 30 and 40 people in Malta suffer from this particular disability.
The Thalidomide tablet was taken by pregnant women who were suffering from morning sickness or as morning sickness is better known. The pill was produced by a German company in the mid-1950s and in 1958 was also produced in the United Kingdom. Although this pill was condemned internationally in 1961, it remained available in Malta until 1968.
Minister Farrugia Portelli said that the case of Anatole Baldacchino represents a case of a number of people who ended up with a disability due to a dangerous medicine that was allowed to be sold in Malta. “Through this exercise we are seeing that both at national level and at European level Malta has made its voice heard. In a joint work with the MEP Alex Agius Saliba we will first see that we have statistics on exactly how many people with disabilities we have due to this pill and then we will continue to spread our work with the aim of doing justice to them. the persons. “
MEP Alex Agius Saliba said that in recent days he has started under pressure with the European Commission to give Maltese and other European patients affected by the Thalidomide pill adequate compensation as they took patients in Germany and as they took patients in the United Kingdom. directly from European funds.
“I started this initiative after an intervention made by Minister Farrugia Portelli, with whom we are working to gather information and also put bilateral pressure on the German Government to see both from the point of view of the European Commission and the Bilateral justice will be done to these victims, “said MEP Agius Saliba.
Anatole Baldacchino said that there was a need to form an association, Thalidomide Survivors Malta, to gather all its victims under one hood. “Research shows that this pill was widely used in Malta between 1958 and 1967. In 1961 the pill was banned internationally but unfortunately in our country it remained on the market. Of course, children were affected in their mother’s womb, some were not even born and others lived for a short time. These amounts were not small. Our aim is to bring together those who are still alive to be their voice both locally and abroad. I am one of them and I know how people like me feel and so I appeal to those who think they have been affected by this pill and who today I assume are between 55 and 65 years old, to come forward and give the information about themselves to then they can be contacted, ”said Anatole.
People with disabilities who think they are victims of this pill should contact the Ministry for Inclusion and Quality of Life by sending an email to inclusion.misw@gov.mt.
