Ukraine's health minister has urged the public not to panic over news that swine flu is spreading throughout the country, as authorities in Kyiv declared a quarantine.
“As of today, there have been 25 confirmed deaths, those are deaths confirmed by a laboratory. I have heard different figures. It’s not true, because they (the deaths) must be confirmed by a laboratory. I urge you not to panic,” Health Minister Oleksandr Kvitashvili said at a briefing in Kyiv on Jan. 15.
Kvitashvili stressed that the number of deaths and recorded cases did not constitute an epidemic in the country, noting that it was normal for flu season.
Lyubov Nekrasova, head of the ministry’s Center for the Monitoring of Illnesses, echoed Kvitashvili’s reassurances that the country was not facing an epidemic, but noted that the outcome of flu cases had been worse than expected.
“We predicted an increase in infections at the start of the new year holidays, but we didn’t expect fatalities,” Nekrasova said.
In the last week, she said, 702 people across the country have fallen ill with the more severe form of the flu, which can lead to pneumonia and require hospitalization, and 15 of them died from complications.
The situation prompted Kyiv authorities to order a quarantine starting on Jan. 16.
“We will not wait until the threshold for an epidemic in the capital is surpassed, and we have made the decision to impose a quarantine starting from Saturday in Kyiv to stop the spread of the seasonal illness. This is a preventative measure, as we see a negative dynamic in terms of the number of ill. Considering the specifics of the virus and the serious complications, we must stop the spread of this seasonal illness,” Vitali Klitschko was cited as saying by UNIAN news agency at a meeting with city health officials on Jan. 14.
The quarantine will apply to schools, some health centers and community centers, and public events will be restricted, he said.
Kyiv, in particular, faces a possible spike in the number of infections in the next few days, according to the city’s main medical officer, Oleg Ruban.
In an interview with television channel 112 Ukraine on Jan. 15, Ruban warned that “with the progression (of the virus) that we are seeing today, we will approach the threshold to an epidemic next week and a possible worsening of the epidemic in Kyiv.”
After the New Year’s holidays, when adults returned to work and children to school, the rate of infection had rapidly increased, he said, quadrupling among children and doubling among adults.
Since the start of flu season in early October, five people in Kyiv have died from swine flu, an aggressive strain of the flu virus that first appeared in Ukraine in 2009. Swine flu can be deadly for those at higher risk of complications, including children, the elderly and pregnant women.
Irina Sysoenko, a lawmaker from the Samopomich party and a member of the parliament’s health committee, praised the quarantine as a “timely move” on social media and said she believed it would stop the virus from spreading.
But some were more skeptical. Inna Bereziuk, head of Kyiv’s Expert Council on Research for Healthcare and Social Well-being, said the official response to the situation had already come too late.
By now, you will only manage to properly prepare for next season,” Bereziuk wrote on her Facebook page upon hearing of the quarantine, stressing that authorities should have conducted an information campaign warning people to get vaccinated ahead of time rather than reacting after the outbreak.
“Suddenly, at the brink of an epidemic, they remember about vaccinations and monitoring,” she wrote.
Kyiv Post editor Allison Quinn can be reached at [email protected]
