Probe launched into hospital cholera rumors

An Athens prosecutor on Friday ordered that an investigation be launched to determine whether anyone should be charged with the dissemination of false information following claims by POEDIN, the national union of public hospital workers, that cholera bacteria had been found at the capital's Helena Venizelou maternity hospital.

The order by Ilias Zagoraios came a day after the Hellenic Center for Disease Control and Prevention (KEELPNO) said it could not confirm reports claiming that there had been an outbreak of cholera at the hospital.

In a statement, KEELPNO said that laboratory tests conducted so far had not provided evidence of the cholera bacterium in water samples at the hospital and its basement food store as POEDIN had claimed.