Ukraine flu death toll rises, foreign medical aid arrives

Nov 2, 2009, 9:30 GMT

   Kiev - Ukraine's swine flu death toll continued rising on Monday, as medical assistance from other countries began arriving in the former Soviet republic for what authorities there term an epidemic.

   Health Ministry figures put the number of dead at 60 people. Swine flu was responsible for some but possibly not all of the deaths, according to a Health Ministry statement.

   More than 191,000 Ukrainians had registered with public health authorities as suffering from flu, of whom 83,000 were children, according to the Interfax news agency.

   Most of those infected were in Ukraine's western provinces, adjacent to the European Union nations Poland, Slovakia, Hungary and Romania.

   A Ukrainian military cargo plane loaded with the flu medication Tamiflu landed in Kiev's international airport late Sunday evening, and was met by Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko.

   The drug, produced by Swiss-based Roche, would be turned over wholesale to Ukraine's public health system, to prevent price-gouging by private distributors, Tymoshenko said.

   Poland was the first country to donate medical aid to Ukraine, with a lorry-load of Tamiflu and surgical masks arriving Saturday.

   Shortages in flu remedies, surgical masks and even Vitamin C tablets were reported across Ukraine, despite the foreign assistance, as panic buying emptied chemist shelves.

Black market prices of some flu remedies, particularly Tamifu, had rocketed to 10 times normal retail value, Tymoshenko said.