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Prime minister changes take on flu shots
Journal Staff Report

KIEV, Nov. 5 – Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko on Thursday changed her stance towards accepting vaccination after the World Health Organization warned that two more strains of flu, including the bird flu, may strike Ukraine.

The change comes three weeks after the start of a deadly swine flu epidemic in Ukraine that is believed to have killed about 100 people so far and infected hundreds of thousands.

“We cannot relax even for a moment because the World Health Organization predicts two more waves of flu, including the bird flu, are expected in Ukraine,” Tymoshenko said at a meeting with local administration in Chernivtsi.

“There is no alternative to vaccination,” Tymoshenko said. “The entire world is going this way, but we have to analyze the tactic and approach towards the vaccination. When the country is going through difficult times, like today’s epidemic, we have to think how to develop a strategy towards protecting the people.”

The meeting comes a day after Tymoshenko admitted she was not vaccinated and that she prefers “like all other people” to rely on garlic, onion and lemon as a way of preventing the flu.

Her comment, made in Ivano-Frankivsk, the epicenter of the swine flu, was extremely controversial and misleading as the vaccination is the only known way of preventing the flu.

The rate of vaccination in Ukraine is extremely low – at about 58% - as many people believe vaccination was not effective or even dangerous. This perhaps explains why Ukraine – unlike other countries in the region - is especially hard hit by the flu.

Experts say the rate of vaccination must increase to at least 90% in order to prevent the spread of viruses causing flu.

President Viktor Yushchenko, in a televised address to the nation on Wednesday, urged the people to get vaccinations as soon as possible after consulting their doctors.

Ukraine has been battling the outbreak of the swine flu for the past three weeks, with measuring mainly including shutting down schools and banning pubic gatherings.

The World Health Organization, which sent a team to Ukraine to investigate the illnesses, said it has reasons to believe the outbreak may be caused by the swine flu, also known as (A)H1N1.

Separately, the European Union will send its own team to Ukraine with experts expected to arrive on Friday on mission to check on the spread of the epidemic and to provide recommendations.

“The vaccination is needed, it will be conducted against both, the seasonal flu and the Californian flu,” Oleksandr Turchynov, the first deputy prime minister, said Thursday. Officials often refer to the swine flu in Ukraine as the Californian flu.

“Due to political speculations, a black zone around the vaccinations has been created in Ukraine,” Turchynov said. “This problem was shifted from expert to political sphere. The number of people getting vaccination has dropped considerably.”

Meanwhile, Tymoshenko said the number of new cases involving flu-like illnesses has slowed down after three weeks of rapid growth, perhaps suggesting the epidemic may be leveling off.

The pattern of previous seasonal flu epidemics suggests that the spread of the disease will stop and will be subsiding over the next three weeks.

“I think that we have reached more or less clear stability,” Tymoshenko said. “Now there will be three weeks that the epidemic will gradually subside and we will see the situation returning back to normal.” (tl/ez)




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