You guessed it: Youths to fend for themselves if excessive texting starts to hurt

MaltaToday's April Fool's Day: €2 million grant to outsource surgery for mobile phone users and gamers suffering from tenosynovitis thumb

'Text thumb' : the inflammation of the tendons on the thumb side of your wrist
'Text thumb' : the inflammation of the tendons on the thumb side of your wrist

You guessed it straight away: MaltaToday's story on free surgery for over 12,000 Maltese youths was an April Fool's joke and the health department is not going to launch a scheme, for operations on young people suffering from ‘text thumb’ – the inflammation of the tendons on the thumb side of your wrist resulting from too much mobile phone texting.

The popularity amongst media houses to take part in April Fool's Day has increased each year worldwide.

MaltaToday's joke for April Fool's Day:

MaltaToday is informed that authorities have identified a demographic of 12,000 people aged between 18 and 30 who suffer from ‘text thumb’, and that a campaign to identify sufferers will start on various workplaces and educational campuses.

BlackBerry thumb, texting thumb, or gamer’s thumb – as it is known – is also scientifically a tenosynovitis of the sheath or tunnel that surrounds two tendons that control movement of the thumb.

MaltaToday understands the campaign is also part of a political drive to capture young voters ahead of the next general election.

“The idea is one of many designed to target young voters,” said MaltaToday’s source, a political aide. “This is just the health ministry digging deep into its pockets and finding how best it can throw the cash into young people’s hands. Other ministries will be launching their own campaigns soon.”

The spring and summer seasons are indeed expected to be months of soft campaigning for the Labour administration, with new initiatives aimed at putting more money in people’s pockets.