Brussels, 10/05/2006 (Agence Europe) - On 10 May, the European Commission launched a “Health-EU Portal” of health information on the web. The launch event took place in Malaga, Spain, within the Commission-sponsored “eHealth” conference. The Health-EU Portal is a gateway to simple and sound information on 47 topics that range from babies' health to bio-terrorism, and from infectious diseases to health insurance. It is aimed at citizens, patients, healthcare professionals and scientists alike. Health and Consumer Protection Commissioner Markos Kyprianou said: “The Health-EU Portal is a very large project bringing together all EU Member States as well as EFTA nations, international organisations and NGOs. Web surfers will have access to over 40,000 links to trustworthy sources. The translation of the Portal into all 20 official EU languages means that up to 1.5 billion people worldwide can use it to help them to make healthy choices”.
The €600,000 project is an initiative of the EU Public Health Programme 2003-2008 with financial support from the Interchange of Data between Administrations, which aims to promote greater involvement of the public, institutions, organisations and associations in health. The Portal also meets the aims of the e-Europe Action Plan - providing citizens with simple, clear and scientifically sound information on-line. An Editorial Board of Commission services and Member States' representatives will oversee the content development of the portal using standard procedures. (Further info: http: //health.europa.eu).