Comment: Pandemic politics
Ukraine
Yushchenko was indignant: the head doctor in the Ukraine was a politician
04/Nov/09
Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko urged politicians not to give recommendations for the treatment of influenza and to transfer this right only to specialists.
According to an UNIAN correspondent, he said during a meeting with the leadership of the Ministry of Health.
According to the President, “the chief doctor in the Ukraine was a politician who every day from the TV screen tells what to drink and what to consume.” He urged journalists “do not let politicians screen, let the screen professionals.
Yushchenko also noted that Ukraine has scrapped a campaign to vaccinate the population. According to him, for the period the spread of influenza in the state desires to make a vaccine showed only 6% of Ukrainians. “Medicine is not totally trust”, - he said.
He also again called on politicians not to use the influenza epidemic in their purposes. According to Yushchenko, even such tragic moments politicians try to use the benefit for themselves.
The President was outraged by the fact that the shipment of essential drugs at the airport to meet not only the responsible people, but also a group of politicians. “In what country the night shipment of pills meets half of the government?”, - Said Victor Yushchenko.
In addition, he expressed outrage that even during the spread of influenza in Ukraine carried out the mass political activities. The President recalled that on 24 October in the Ternopil region of the viral diseases were reported 10 deaths. However, the same day in Kiev brought 200 thousand people. “Who gave permission to bring in people?”, - Said V. Yushchenko near the heads of the Ministry of Health. He also noted that the authority of the Ministry and doctors, in particular, in Ukraine catastrophically low.
V. Yushchenko said that during an epidemic of the Ministry of Health should be a monopolist in the provision of public information regarding the status of disease, as well as recommendations regarding how to treat the disease.
http://www.unian.net/rus/news/news-345051.html
Newfoundland, Canada.
1 new, presumably confirmed death in Newfoundland. The rest are previously reported and counted.
B.C., Newfoundland report H1N1 deaths
Last Updated: Wednesday, November 4, 2009 | 11:44 AM ET
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2009/11/04/h1n1-canada.html
More people are falling sick with flu symptoms in locations across Canada, increasing demands on health-care services.
Health officials in British Columbia confirmed three more deaths from swine flu on Wednesday. All had pre-existing medical conditions.
None of the patients were children. A fourth patient, a schoolgirl from Yukon, has also died in the Vancouver area.
In B.C., 162 people have been admitted to hospital in the past week, and family doctors in the province are seeing eight times more patients than usual for this time of year showing flu-like illness.
In Newfoundland and Labrador, health authorities are reporting a second H1N1-related death. Both deaths happened in central Newfoundland.
Meanwhile in Sudbury, Ont., 47 people have been hospitalized, including nine people who are on ventilators. The city has a population of 158,000.
Sudbury has cancelled elective surgeries, which some hospitals from Vancouver to Montreal are also doing.
In cities such as Windsor, N.S., and Edmonton, flu assessment clinics have opened. People with flu symptoms can go the clinics to get checked out to help ease the pressure on family doctors and emergency rooms.
In most cases, patients can be sent home for treatment. Some are also being admitted to hospital.