Ukraine flu death toll keeps climbing

Nov 13, 2009, 15:24 GMT

Kiev - The death toll from a flu outbreak continued to climb in Ukraine on Friday, as government officials for the first time declined to make public a daily update on infections from the virulent strain swine flu.

A total of 239 Ukrainians had died from flu or flu-related symptoms as counted from October 29, with 26 persons losing their lives since Thursday, according to the latest data made public by Ukraine's Ministry of Health.

Kiev on Friday for the first time since the October 29 outbreak of widespread flu infections did not make public data on changes to numbers of persons dead or infected from swine flu.

There was no need to do so, officials said.

'Ukraine is suffering from a pandemic of swine flu, and at this moment there is no importance to how many cases (of swine flu) actually are confirmed in tests, as all will be treated the same way,' said Vasyl Lazorishinets, deputy health minister, according to an Interfax news agency report.

Jukka Pukkila, leader of a World Health Organization mission to Ukraine, speaking at the same press conference, said the former Soviet republic's swine flu outbreak was under control.

'According to our preliminary findings, there is no difference between infection rates of the flu A/H1N1 in Ukraine, as compared to other countries,' he said.

Seventeen Ukrainians had died, and 79 were infected with swine flu, according to statistics released by Ukraine's government on Wednesday. Prior to Friday the Ministry of Health had updated data concerning swine flu on a daily basis.

An estimated 1.25 million Ukrainians have been infected with flu, of whom 65,000 were hospitalised, and some 450 in severe or critical condition, according to the Health Ministry counts made public Friday.

Doctors in Ukraine's western Chernovetsky region, near the centre of the flu outbreak, said lab tests showed at least some of the fatalties appeared to be caused by a flu dissimilar to both common flu, and swine flu.

'The virus causing the deaths is extremely aggressive, it doesn't first infect the throat (as is common in flu), but strikes the lungs directly,' said Dr. Viktor Bachinsky, according to a ZIK news agency web report.

Ukrainian health workers in the neighbouring Ivano-Frankivsk province were for the first time treating persons suffering from complications from severe flu infections with pure oxygen, the Interfax news agency reported.

Friday's confirmation of continuing and widening flu infections throughout Ukraine came in the face of declarations earlier this week by Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, claiming the worst of the flu outbreak had passed.

Tymoshenko, speaking at a morning press conference, blamed President Viktor Yushchenko, one of her rivals in next January's presidential election, for problems controlling the flu, and rising dead and sick counts.

'Unfortunately for the last eight days the President has not signed into law 1 billion hyrvnas (122 million dollars) to fight this epidemic,' Tymoshenko said in comments aired by the 1+1 TV channel.

'From this point forward every person that gets sick or dies, the president will take personal reponsibility,' she said.

Yushchenko has blocked the funding, saying the government budget lacks sufficient money to cover the emergency health spending.