Posted on 10/30/2009 4:42:41 AM PDT by Uncle Ike
SHOCK! Epidemic of pneumonic plague in Ukraine? (updated at 05:39 pm) MIGnews.com.ua
Ministry of Health has not established the exact diagnosis of the epidemic disease in the western regions of Ukraine. Health Minister Vasyl Knyazevich has given information about spread of diseases in the Ternopil, Ivano-Frankivsk and Lviv Regions today at the meeting of Cabinet of Ministers.
According to the Minister, the World Health Organization is ready to render assistance to Ukrainian experts and the Ministry of Health in order to establish the cause of death and development of disease flu in the Ternopil, Ivano-Frankivsk and Lviv Regions.
"We are working at receiving the vaccine against influenza A (H1N1) also", - said Vasily Knyazevich and asked the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to render assistance.
Answering question of Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko about the definition of the specific nature of the disease, the head of the Ministry of Health said: "The nature of infections is viral one. But at the moment it is not defined, is it the Californian influenza H1N1, or it is our seasonal influenza. To date, there is no precise diagnosis."
(snip)
According to the Minister of Health, to date, 12 adults have died in the Ternopil Region. "There are problems, people of working age 20-45 years are sick, there is a problem with pregnant women (we have the death in the Ivano-Frankivsk and Ternopil Regions), 17 patients remain in the grave condition, 4 of them have artificial pulmonary ventilation", - said Vasily Knyazevych.
(Excerpt) Read more at mignews.com.ua ...
Ukraine
Cabinet introduces quarantine in the nine western regions of Ukraine
30/Oct/09
According to an UNIAN correspondent, reported by Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, revealing an extraordinary meeting of the Cabinet.
She noted that today in Lviv, Ivano-Frankovsk and Ternopol areas of the state of incidence of influenza has reached epidemic threshold.
Also, according to the prime minister, in the neighboring areas - Transcarpathian and Chernivtsi, Rivne, Volyn, Khmelnytsky and Vinnitsa - is the threat of the spread of influenza.
According to Tymoshenko, in connection with the present day in all of these nine areas of quarantine.
The Premier noted that this provides an offensive today in these regions, a three-week holiday in all educational institutions.
Also, she says, will be canceled all public events.
Y. Tymoshenko added that will also put a special regime, which will include the restriction of transport of people from these regions to other regions of Ukraine.
After opening remarks, Prime Minister, her press secretary Maryna Soroka explained to reporters that the quarantine is introduced in the nine regions of Ukraine, but the situation on the three-week holiday in all educational institutions in respect of all Ukraine.
Also Soroka added that the territory of all other quarantine measures will be specified during the cabinet meeting and a special commission, which is continuing.
http://health.unian.net/rus/detail/201650
Ukraine considers quarantine after first H1N1 death
Today at 14:00 | Reuters
http://www.kyivpost.com/news/nation/detail/51526/
Ukraine has closed schools, banned all public events, and imposed restrictions on people’s movements around the country for a three-week period after confirming its first death from H1N1 swine flu.
“All educational institutions without exception...will be switched on to a three-week holiday period,” Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko announced. She indicated this period could be extended if it was deemed necessary.
“Apart from this, we will make the decision to cancel all mass meetings...for three weeks,” she said at an emergency government session.
“We will introduce a special system to stop unnecessary travel by people from one region to another,” she added.
Earlier, the Health Ministry confirmed that one of 30 deaths in western Ukraine since mid-October that had been attributed to flu and pneumonia had been caused by the H1N1 strain, commonly known as swine flu.
“So far, not all the dead were tested [for H1N1],” a Health Ministry spokeswoman said. “However, tests on one dead [person] proved positive.”
“We are considering [imposing] a quarantine not only in the west, but also across the country because
What is your point?
I knew they were going to let something “loose” to justify this whole pandemic thing, and so it begins ...
Now that I’ve re-read it it sound like H1N1 to the “T”, how low do you think the average Ukraniun is on Vitamin D, pale as a ghost coupled with heavy alcohol drinking doesn’t make for a great defense ...
Having trouble understanding what this article is really trying to get across. Are they simply saying they are seeing cases of pneumonia develop in H1N1 infected cases, like we are seeing over here. I’m not understanding what’s so upsetting about this development that we’ve already seem developing over here.
Ukraine
Transcarpathia: “the first stage of panic” in connection with the flu was
30/Oct/09
Chairman Ivano-Frankivsk Regional State Administration Mykola Paliychuk believes that “the first stage of panic” in connection with influenza in the area took place.
According to an UNIAN correspondent, he expressed this opinion at today’s briefing.
The governor denied reports that appeared on some local Internet sites that Ivano-Frankivsk will “spray antibiotics. “No! Such activities are not conducted and does not hold “- he said.
At the same time in the city can meet the passers-by in gauze bandages. However, this is not a mass phenomenon, because pharmacies do not. There are times that dressing “special” sell several times more expensive. The Governor called on the authorities to report on each case, and violators will be applied “strict measures”. And in the coming days, he promised, pharmacies will be provided with all necessary: masks and antiviral drugs.
On the streets of Ivano-Frankivsk decreased children, parents with young children, freely and in public transport, shops.
http://health.unian.net/rus/detail/201685
Ukraine
Yushchenko ordered the Defense Ministry to prepare a mobile hospitals
30/Oct/09
Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko ordered the Defense Ministry to prepare a mobile military hospitals.
According to an UNIAN correspondent, he told reporters.
V. Yushchenko said that today should provide the necessary number of places for patients.
The president said the Defense Ministry order for the deployment of mobile mobile hospitals, which will be raised if necessary.
Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko has said that drugs to combat pandemic influenza A/H1N1 long enough, but he would ask the world community, if the need arises for additional resources.
According to an UNIAN correspondent, he told reporters.
V. Yushchenko, in particular, noted that the supply of medicines, which today is in Ukraine, allows for all who suffer illness.
At the same time, he said, if trends continue and spread of drugs not to be missed, he would ask the international institutions, other countries to obtain additional quantities of drugs.
“Certainly, we get the amount of drugs, which we will need,” - he said.
http://health.unian.net/rus/detail/201687
Ukraine
The President instructed to urgently change the national pandemic plan
30/Oct/09
Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko ordered to urgently make changes to the national pandemic plan in the light of the situation with the flu.
According to an UNIAN correspondent, he told journalists today.
According to Yushchenko, he instructed the Ministry of Health of Ukraine to develop a realistic plan of action that will guide all the while overcoming the consequences of an influenza pandemic.
In particular, according to the President, it is necessary to amend the national pandemic plan. He hoped that even at today’s meeting of the Council of National Security and Defense, these changes will be presented.
V. Yushchenko said that the plan should be clearly formulated recommendations for citizens and professionals how to act in these conditions. In particular, should be elaborated on the steps of quarantine measures, movement of transport and the public in related fields, etc.
Yushchenko also stressed the need to ensure full control over the situation in all regions of Ukraine. According to the President, the situation is complex. In three regions of Ukraine - Lviv, Ivano-Frankivsk, Ternopil - found more than 30 thousand cases of respiratory disease, 951 people hospitalized. Has registered 32 deaths, including 11 - of the influenza virus A/H1N1.
V. Yushchenko said that today a big problem for Ukraine is the issue of virus typing. He noted that individual professionals today may be assumed that influenza detected in the western regions of Ukraine, “is a mutated virus among swine and avian influenza.
http://health.unian.net/rus/detail/201689
I would translate it as: "He said that various specialists do not exclude the possibility that the flu detected in the western regions of the Ukraine "appears to be a swine-avian mutant virus".
Ukraine is restricting rail traffic
http://www.nrcu.gov.ua/index.php?id=148&listid=103330
Rail traffic in Ukraine will be restricted due to the epidemiological situation in the country, Health Minister Vasyl Kniazevych has said.
Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko said earlier that travelling between the regions and abroad could be restricted. Border guards also tightened controls, and if they find any symptoms of flu in people who cross the state border, they will immediately send them to local hospitals. Quarantine was imposed in the country’s nine western regions due to the epidemic of the H1N1 influenza, commonly known as swine flu. It was also decided to declare a three-week ban on all mass events and introduce a three-week holiday period at all educational institutions.
From my understanding they are saying it might be a mutated version of H1N1 , and that is why they are going to extremes ....
Ukraine
In Ukraine the number of SARS patients has exceeded 81 thousand
30/Oct/09
According to the Ministry of Health, as of the morning on Oct. 30, 2009 the number of cases in Ukraine reached 81 thousand 487 people, among which 33.5 thousand children. Hospitalized only 2,341 people, of whom 1100 children. There have been 33 fatal cases.
It is said in comments to an UNIAN Health Minister Vasyl Knyazevich on the situation in the spread of the virus A/H1N1 California in Ukraine.
The Minister noted that in October 2009 in the western regions of Ukraine, namely - in Ternopil, Lviv and Ivano-Frankivsk, Chernivtsi - has sharply deteriorated epidemic situation of acute respiratory viral infections.
Especially aggravated the situation since October 19 in the Ternopil region, which registered about 30 thousand patients.
http://health.unian.net/rus/detail/201695
Ukraine
Ministry of Health recommends to stop the work of all educational institutions
30/Oct/09
Ministry of Health in order to minimize the impact of the epidemic of influenza virus A/H1N1 in the state of public health and national security of the state suggest that the work of educational institutions at all levels.
This UNIAN reported in the press service of Ministry of Health.
Also, the Ministry recommends to limit the holding of mass meetings and the work of institutions and agencies, where there are a long time people (computer rooms, entertainment facilities and the like);
In addition, the Ministry of Health emphasizes the need to strengthen anti-epidemic regimes in airports, railway stations, underground, vehicles, markets, shops, catering, in the workplace.
Health Ministry Considers it necessary to continue the vaccination against seasonal influenza contingent risk.
According to the press service, Ukraine provided about 20,5 thousand infectious beds (of which 42% - boksovannye) and 30,5 thousand can be redeveloped.
Are distinguished specialized chambers to accommodate patients and persons with suspected new influenza A (H1/N1) - California, developed plans for the redirection of beds in other hospital departments to deploy bases in case epidoslozhneny.
Also, the Ministry of Health to the organs of executive power: to enact comprehensive plans for the anti-epidemic and antiepizootic measures, the provision of additional appropriations for this purpose, enact a plan of conversion of hospitals for hospitalization of patients with influenza, caused by highly pathogenic viruses, and suspicious of this disease. In addition, we recommend that the provision of additional specialized vehicles for transportation of patients, means of communication, a stockpile of drugs for the prevention and treatment, disinfectants and medical equipment, ensure, if necessary, protection.
Asked the Ministry and carry out extensive health education among the population on measures of individual and community prevention of influenza and acute respiratory viral infections and provide virological laboratory equipment, nutrient media, test systems for the diagnosis of acute respiratory infections and influenza type A/H1N1/Kaliforniya / 04.09.
http://health.unian.net/rus/detail/201697
Ukraine closes all schools, cinemas over swine flu
http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/world/10/30/09/ukraine-closes-all-schools-cinemas-over-swine-flu
0/30/2009
KIEV - Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko on Friday ordered a three-week closure of Ukraine’s schools and cinemas in the toughest measures adopted yet to combat the swine flu virus in Europe.
“From today, all the school establishments in Ukraine — be they private or public — will be put on three weeks of holiday,” she told her cabinet in comments carried on Ukrainian television.
Tymoshenko said the government would also be banning “all public gatherings, every concert and every cinema showing for three weeks.”
The government will also introduce “special regimes” to limit the movement of Ukraine’s citizens from one region to another for non-urgent purposes, she said. Ukraine has borders with four EU countries.
The prime minister’s tough actions came just hours after Ukraine confirmed its first death from the A(H1N1) virus, amid a growing panic over several dozen unexplained deaths in the west of the country.
“One case of swine flu has been confirmed among the dead,” in the Ternopil region in western Ukraine where 30 people have died of unexplained causes in the last days, health ministry spokeswoman Lyudmila Gordon told reporters.
She also threatened to revoke the licenses of pharmacies that failed to stock the appropriate level of anti-flu medicine and masks.
“We can say today that Ukraine has entered into the zone of the swine flu epidemic,” Health Minister Vassyl Kniazevich said.
AFP correspondents in Kiev and the western city of Lviv said there had been long queues outside pharmacies in the past days as the population stocked up on anti-flu masks.
Many students whose courses were cancelled in Lviv and Ternopil left the cities, while those who remained were frequently seen wearing masks in public places.
Lemons, a traditional anti-flu remedy, sold out at markets in Lviv while supermarkets were selling them at double price.
There is currently only enough anti-flu medication in Lviv to last three to four days but central authorities have promised to make additional deliveries, said Lviv governor Mykola Kmit.
Tymoshenko will travel to the affected western Ternopil region later Friday to visit the “epicentre” of the epidemic, a government statement said.
The country’s politicians, including Tymoshenko, have just started official campaigning for presidential elections scheduled for January 17.
The prime minister on Saturday held a mass outdoor rally in the center of Kiev attended by tens of thousands of people to mark her party’s confirmation of her candidacy in the presidential race.
President Viktor Yushchenko, Tymoshenko’s political arch-rival who is also standing in the elections, was due to hold his own rally on Sunday but it is now unclear whether this can go ahead.
Residents of Kiev meanwhile were asking pharmacies for masks and medication but these were not always to be found in stock.
Then it isn't pneumonic plague. That disease is caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis. A small point, perhaps, but reporters really need to get this sort of thing straight or the rest of us won't really know what's happening. And I wouldn't want to be sick with the one and be treated for the other.
While I'd avoid alarmism, from what this story details it sounds pretty bad. Vaccines don't do as well to treat an epidemic as they do to prevent it from starting in the first place. And it's a little late for that.
My point: take this announcement as a very serious outbreak of another health menace.
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