Dec

Epidemic – Europe – Ukraine

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EDIS Number: EP-20101207-28760-UKR
Date / time: 07/12/2010 17:56:30 [UTC]
Event: Epidemic
Area: Europe
Country: Ukraine
State/County: Unknow
City: Unknow
Number of Deads: None or unknow
Number of Injured: None or unknow
Damage level: Minor

Description:

Flu infection is approaching epidemic levels in the former Soviet republic Ukraine and most of the victims are children, a senior health official said Tuesday. More than 64,000 persons have been identified as having caught the flu since the season's first registered case in November, and almost 80 per cent of the victims have been school-age children, said Serhy Ryzhenko, chief of the Health Ministry's epidemics division. Flu strains present in the outbreak include the influenza A subtype H1N1 "swine flu" virus and the A subtype H3N2 virus, according to laboratory testing cited by the report. Infection rates increased more than 17 per cent since last week, he said, according to comments placed on the ministry web site. The Health Ministry formally declares an epidemic in progress when more than one per cent of all persons in the total population are infected with a disease. The level of flu infection is approaching, but has not yet passed that threshold, Ryzhenko said. The hardest-hit regions are in Ukraine's eastern Zaporizhia and Poltava provinces. Ukraine's government on Friday closed nursery schools and most kindergartens nationwide to control the outbreak, and has added staff to health clinics in areas of high infection. Swine flu caused 16 confirmed deaths in Ukraine during the disease's 2009 pandemic. The 2009 outbreak showed up failings in Ukraine's national health system, particularly vaccine shortages and poorly-trained staff.