# 3903
NOTE: This story has been Updated
WHO Dispatching Team To Ukraine
Ukraine Update: H1N1 Quarantine
For the past few days newshounds on the flu forums have been busily finding, and translating, articles from the Ukrainian and Russian press regarding an outbreak of an `unknown disease’ in the Ukraine, which has been blamed for as many as 22 deaths.
This disease has been described most frequently as `flu-like’ and `atypical pneumonia’, and so there is a strong likelihood that this is the novel H1N1 `swine’ flu virus – although that has not been established.
Translations from Russian to English are problematic at times, and we are seeing conflicting accounts, so until we learn more these reports should be viewed with a certain amount of skepticism.
The FluTrackers thread now has in excess of 66 posts over the past three days, as the newshounds compile and analyze these reports. A few excerpts from these reports below:
The first story was posted by Dutchy on October 27th. Bear in mind that these are machine translations from the Russian language:
In Ukraine, from complications following an unknown form of flu deaths of seven people
Ternopil. October 27. INTERFAX-UKRAINE - In Ternopil region of Ukraine on October 26 from complications caused by flu, seven people died, said Tuesday the head of the regional health administration Bogdan Oniskiv.
At a press conference on Tuesday in Ternopil, he noted that almost all dead - the young, physically healthy people. "
He also informed that over the past few days in Ternopil with flu symptoms unknown to the medical institutions sought about 6 thousand people.
Over the next 24 hours the number of deaths reported escalated to 20, and we received conflicting reports as to whether this virus was H1N1. Samples have reportedly been sent to a lab in London, and results are not due back for several days.
This report posted by Hogweed.
Health Ministry Confirms 20 Lethal Pneumonia Cases In Ternopil, Ivano-Frankivsk And Lviv Regions
(15:59, Wednesday, October 28, 2009)Ukrainian News Agency
The Ministry of Healthcare confirms 20 lethal cases of pneumonia in Ternopil, Ivano-Frankivsk and Lviv regions, first deputy health minister Vasyl Lazoryshynets, has told at a news conference.
He said that 95 people were taken to hospitals in Ternopil region since October 13, of them 25 in grave condition and 10 of them died.
In Ivano-Frankivsk region 25 people were taken to hospitals for the same period, seven in grave condition, six died.
In Lviv region 6 patients were taken to hospitals since October 1, of them two in grave condition, four died.
In his turn, first deputy health minister / chief sanitary officer Oleksandr Bilovol said that a high threshold of incidence rate of acute respiratory viral infection has been recorded for the last week and a half in these regions, specifically in Ternopil region the epidemiological threshold exceeded by one and a half times.
He says that at the moment they are searching for underlying causes of pneumonia for every of the lethal cases.
Bilovol expects results of the research in a week.
On Wednesday Vasyl Kniazevych, the health minister, has said that nine cases of death by pneumonia registered in Ternopil region by October 28, and also 95 people treated at hospitals with the same diagnosis.
As to the minister, suspicions of the А(H1N1) influenza virus were not confirmed.
As Ukrainian News earlier reported, the health ministry formed a commission to study reasons for the uprise in the incidence rate of influenza and acute respiratory viral infections in Ternopil region.
There are also conflicting reports over whether quarantines and travel restrictions have been imposed in the region. Below is an updated report from today, posted by Dutchy.
A couple of notes: The mention of SARS in these reports are an artifact from the translation software, and should be interpreted as ARVI - acute respiratory viral infection (Hat tip Alert on FluTrackers). Additionally, the use of Rapid Influenza diagnostic tests (RIDTs) to rule out H1N1 is an unreliable method.
29. 10. 2009 | Kyiv, October 29. / Corr. ITAR-TASS Galina Nekrasov.
Two more deaths due to viral pneumonia registered in Ternopil and Lviv regions. Thus, the number of deaths from an unknown virus in the western regions of Ukraine has reached 22 people, the press service of the Ministry of Health of Ukraine. Almost doubled in the last day of the increased number of hospitalized. Hospitals are more than 130 people, of whom more than 30 in critical condition.
In all the western regions of the country set up mobile teams of the ambulance that identify patients and urging people not to engage in self-medicate. "If a patient on the first day, ask for help, then there is a 100 percent chance to save him," said the chief sanitary doctor of Ukraine Alexander Bilovol.
The disease occurs rapidly, beginning with the high, up to 40 degrees, temperature, fever and chills, on the third day there asphyxiation and pulmonary insufficiency, developed bilateral pneumonia and pulmonary edema.
The disease is not treated with antibiotics, only new antiviral drugs, which in pharmacies there. They're centrally transported to hospitals in the region. The cost of one day of treatment the patient is 10 thousand hryvnia / more than 1 thousand dollars.
Health Minister Vasyl Knyazevich argues that "rapid diagnosis does not confirm the strain of California virus A/H1N1 / in the three western regions. Analysis of patients sent to the virology laboratory in London. "Ukraine, as one of the countries of the European region, serves the laboratory.
Obviously an interesting situation, and one that is being watched closely. The most likely explanation here is the H1N1 virus, but we will have to await laboratory confirmation to know for sure.
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