Swine Flu panics Ukraine
Monday, November 2nd, 2009By Kateryna Choursina and Halia Pavliva
Nov. 2 (Bloomberg) — At least 67 people have died in an epidemic of flu in Ukraine that has infected 255,000, the country’s first deputy health minister Vasyl Lazoryshynets said.
A total of 15,000 people are being treated at hospitals, Lazoryshynets said at a press conference in Kiev today. The country has sent suspected swine flu samples to the U.K. for testing, he said, declining to say when results are expected.
Lazoryshynets said the government has registered 22 cases of suspected swine flu. He declined to comment on which influenza strain is responsible for the deaths. Ukraine has asked the U.S., the European Union, NATO and neighbors for anti- flu drugs. Poland and Slovakia sent protective masks and Roche Holding AG’s drug Tamiflu to Ukraine after President Viktor Yushchenkosaid the country couldn’t fight an outbreak of pandemic influenza alone, a statement from the government said.
In the U.S., President Barack Obama declared swine flu a national emergency on Oct. 24. The disease is widespread across the country and accounted for 411 confirmed deaths as of Oct. 30, including 114 children, and more than 8,200 hospitalizations since Aug. 30, researchers at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Harvard School of Public Health said on Oct. 29.
