Ukraine's flu outbreak shows signs of slowing

Nov 6, 2009, 14:00 GMT

   Kiev - Ukraine's deadly flu outbreak showed signs of slowing on Friday, as government control measures began taking effect and warmer weather arrived.

   A total of 109 people had died of flu-related symptoms since late October, 14 from the particularly virulent H1N1 swine flu strain, said Oleskander Vilovol, a Health Ministry spokesman, according to a Channel 5 television news report.

   Close to 34,000 Ukrainians nationwide were hospitalized because of severe flu symptoms, 32 with confirmed cases of swine flu, Vilovol said, noting a moderate slowing of reported cases as compared with last week.

   But flu remained a massive health problem, he said, with 762,833 persons registered with the Health Ministry as currently suffering from the flu, or roughly 1.6 per cent of Ukraine's entire population.

   World Health Organization (WHO) officials praised the response by the government to the flu outbreak, according to the Interfax news agency. Mission leader Jukka Pukkila said at a Kiev press conference: 'We can only approve of the actions of the Ukrainian government, that they so quickly and adequately began to respond to the epidemic.'

    Road and foot traffic at Ukraine's western border-crossing points with Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, and Poland had almost returned to pre-flu outbreak levels, according to a statement from Ukraine's Border Troops command.

   Every second Ukrainian will catch the flu this season, partly because of a government ban on flu vaccinations in the autumn, Interfax quoted Oleksy Hromazyn, spokesman for Ukraine's Ministry of Emergency Situations, as saying.

   Ukraine's Ministry of Health put a moratorium on flu vaccinations in September after a series of deaths, mostly of children, who had received flu vaccine at government health clinics.

   The effective absence of flu vaccinations in Ukraine since then has helped widen and deepen the impact of the present flu outbreak, Hromazyn was quoted as saying.

   Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko, in company with his Belarusian counterpart President Aleksandr Lukashenko, on Friday flew to Ukraine's western Ivano-Frankivsk province, a region hard-hit by the flu.

   'We have come here to show you we are with you,' Yushchenko said to local reporters. 'There is no need to panic ... our enemy is panic, and lack of professionalism.'

   Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko on Friday said government efforts to control and limit the extent of the flu outbreak were improving day by day, and that medical supplies to fight the flu 'were now present in sufficient quantities,' according to an ICTV television news report.

   Despite Tymoshenko's statement, severe retail shortages of protective masks, flu remedies, and the swine flu treatment Tamiflu were widely reported in Ukrainian media Friday.