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Swine flu and panic in Ukraine
Alanna Shaikh - November 18, 2009 - 12:58 am

Health
There are a lot of rumors coming out of Ukraine right now about a new form of swine flu, a brand new illness, or some kind of virulent pneumonia. I suspect it’s no more than swine flu with complications, but it’s causing some major panic in Kiev.

Britain’s Daily Express newspaper has the terrified tabloid version. They report that “A cocktail of three flu viruses are reported to have mutated into a single pneumonic plague, which it is believed may be far more dangerous than swine flu. The death toll has reached 189 and more than 1 million people have been infected.” The New York Times has a slightly more nuanced report. They identify the mystery illness as swine flu and quote a WHO official who says that “Early findings are that serious cases mounted because the sick avoided hospitalization until their illness was dangerously advanced, stockpiles of Tamiflu were locked in centralized locations and the supply of ventilators fell short.”

I suspect that the WHO and the New York Times have it right. There are a lot of barriers to access to health care in Ukraine, under-the-table payments being one of the biggest. I can well imagine people refusing to go to a doctor until their lungs were past saving. Avian Flu diary agrees, attributing the unusual severity to viral hemorrhagic pneumonia as a complication of swine flu. They also have an enlightening comment at the bottom of their post from a commenter in Ukraine watching the situation unfold.

Secrecy is not helping the government of Ukraine here. In a nation with a history of cover-ups – Chernobyl being the most famous – the population is quick to panic when they sense that they’re not getting the real story. Getting the real story out as fast as possible and backing it up with access to medical care – is the only way to stop the panic.

http://www.undispatch.com/node/9160

I have been reading a lot of information on this because the plague scares the crap out of me. From what I gather, the reason it is so deadly is that this virus, like the 1918 virus creates a Cytokine storm which is where you overproduce antibodies to fight the virus and you essentially drown from ruptured blood vessels in the lining of the lungs. The reason it kills healthier people is because they are the ones with the stronger antibodies. To make it worse in the Ukraine, they do not require a prescription for antibiotics and so people are going in and buying antibiotics which is killing them!

Of course, I do find it kind of wierd about that MOSSAD microbiologist guy that the FBI and SWAT team was called into an 8 hour standoff, took robots, EMP bombs and everything else to get him out of the car for “threatening the White House”. That was in August and his court date isn’t until January 2010? Not only that, he is in the Patton Mental Hospital, the California state mental institution. Oh, and get this... all that for a MISDEMEANER! Seriously, that is all he is charged with but he is being held until JANUARY! And he had made it to the Federal building parking lot to deliver papers that showed that Baxter pharmicutical was planning to release a bioweapon IN THE UKRAINE. Interesting that here a few months later...

Whoa, check this out! Also, a link to a nurse who lives in the Ukraine, the W.H.O. is the one insisting this is the swine flu and pushing the vaccine. However doctors there are insisting it’s not ALL and feel frustrated at trying to get past the WHO on figuring out how to help people when they just want to push the vaccine.

Capital City of Ukraine newspaper:

http://www.kyivpost.com/news/ukraine/detail/53105/

Ukrainian authorities hide the true information about swine flu in the country. Number of registered flu and ARVI accidents grew up in 2.5 times – Tymoshenko said. But it is not the real situation. Real number of victims is much higher. Doctors say, that more than 1000 people has already died of flu in Ukraine. Some hours ago the Prime Minister of Ukraine Yulia Tymoshenko has informed, that the number of registered flu and ARVI cases in Ukraine in November, 8-10 has grown up again more than in 2.5 times. Experts suppose about more than 2 million flu diseased.

“The number of registered flu and ARVI accidents has increased in 2.5-3 times during the period from 8 to 10 of November. It is about that epidemic is not coming down”, noticed Tymoshenko, but people don’t believe her.