EU Health Prize for Journalists awarded

The winners were announced by Health Commissioner Tonio Borg. Out of more than 850 articles entered into the competition, 28 national finalists were chosen by juries in each EU country. Henk Blanken received the main prize for his article “Carel’s Head", a story which follows a young man suffering from Parkinson's disease from diagnosis to treatment, and gives a detailed and emotional account of the pioneering surgery he receives. Blanken writes for Dagblad van het Noorden (the Netherlands).

Second place went to Christiane Hawranek and Marco Maurer, writing for Die Zeit (Germany) for their sharp, ‘do cumentary-style’ article “The Patient Traffickers” which highlights dubious practices in non-regulated medical care across borders. Finally, Mette Dahlgaard, who writes for the Berlingske newspaper (Denmark) came in third with “Am I Killing Someone?”, the story of a sperm donor who discovers that he carries the gene for a highly hereditary form of cancer, but hits a brick wall when he tries to find a way of warning potential children who could be affected.