(eca 167) Ukraine uses cheesecloth and masks to grapple with flu (Feature)

Nov 2, 2009, 16:28 GMT

   Kiev - Ukraine's leaders have unveiled a pair of unconventional weapons in the former Soviet republic's battle against a deadly flu outbreak: millions of metres of cheesecloth and industrious needlework by the nation's housewives.

   'If you can sew a mask yourself, for your children, for your friends - it will be a great help to the nation,' said Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko in a Sunday evening TV address.

   More than 270,000 Ukrainians are currently registered with authorities as suffering from the flu, some the deadly strain swine flu. At least 64 Ukrainians, almost all living in the country's western provinces, have died from flu-related symptoms.

   Ukraine's cities are densely populated, and its cheap public transportation system is heavily used. The technically free public health system is underfunded, and sick or injured almost always must pay for medical supplies themselves.

   By Sunday, panic purchasing and hoarding had emptied Ukrainian store shelves of flu remedies and anti-infection masks.

   Normally retailing in Ukraine for less than a dollar, basic protective masks were available on Monday only via Ukraine's black market, for around 10 dollars apiece.

   Tymoshenko's answer to the shortage is cheesecloth. By 'mobilizing' some six million metres of fabric held in state reserves, the gauze would be turned over to nine government-owned clothing factories that normally produce work clothing for state employees. There, the material would be sewn into masks.

   On Monday, Ukraine's UT-1 television channel was displaying images of Tymoshenko's emergency biohazard mask programme: a multi-layered cheesecloth mask tied with four cloth strings, serviceable for intercepting a flu virus, and differing little from surgical masks used in Europe in the late 19th century.

   Any patriotic Ukrainian with a needle, thread, and some cheesecloth or even a bit of breathable fabric, could do her bit and kit out 'family and friends' as well, Tymoshenko said.

   As of Monday, much of official Ukraine was masked - though in modern anti-bacterial masks secured with elastic bands. Practically all government employees in contact with the general public on a regular basis were protected, most visibly healthcare employees and workers in post offices and public transportation.

   But the general public's response to Tymoshenko's appeal that 'all citizens wear masks if you go outside' has been spotty. Amongst pedestrian crowds across the country, isolated mask-wearers could be spotted on Monday. In three central districts of Kiev after mid-day, a reporter observed between 1 in 20 and 1 in 30 pedestrians in masks.

   Similar low mask use was reported by media nationwide, and even in the geographic heart of the flu outbreak, in Ukraine's western provinces adjacent to the European Union.

   Anti-bacterial mask use on Monday was most controversial within the marble and plaster walls of Ukraine's parliament, the Verkhovna Rada, where MP Volodymyr Stretovich, shortly after the opening of the morning session, motioned all deputies currently present to don masks, as Prime Minister Tymoshenko had requested.

   Though medical supply stores nationwide had run out of anti-bacterial masks over the weekend, masks were still available and on sale at two stores operating inside the Rada, for MP use only.

   Long queues had formed at the MP-only medical supply kiosks prior to parliament's Monday opening, with MPs and their staff waiting patiently to purchase flu supplies unavailable to the general public, including anti-bacterial masks, eyewitnesses said.

   Stretovich's motion was shot down, with some vehemence, by parliamentary speaker Volodymyr Litvyn, who said, 'If people see us MPs sitting in this warm hall, and wearing masks, there will be a mass rush on railroad ticket counters and the entire country will take off for who knows where!'

   Meanwhile, throughout the day Monday, Tymoshenko repeated her insistence that bio-protective masks were an important weapon in Ukraine's fight against its worst flu outbreak in 90 years.

   But she was not wearing a mask.