Swine Flu Scare Tightens Borders Around Ukraine
Russia, Slovakia tighten borders with Ukraine as WHO investigates swine flu outbreak
Russia and Slovakia tightened their borders with Ukraine on Tuesday as the World Health Organization began investigating a suspected swine flu outbreak.
The death toll from flu has climbed to 71 since the outbreak struck last week in the western city of Ternopil, Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko said.
Blood tests have yet to determine how many of these deaths were from the new and aggressive H1N1 strain. But the WHO said in a statement on Tuesday that most flu cases in Ukraine can be assumed to be H1N1, "as the pandemic virus has rapidly become the dominant influenza strain worldwide."
As a precaution, schools and universities across the country will remain closed this week, and officials urged people in western Ukraine to travel only when necessary and stay away from public places.
Slovakia, which lies on Ukraine's western border, closed two of its five border crossings with Ukraine to keep the infection from spreading. In Russia, where there have been 14 confirmed swine flu deaths, the Health Ministry said it would examine anyone crossing the border from Ukraine and quarantine people with severe symptoms.
The World Health Organization sent a team to Kiev on Monday to assist local health officials with the epidemic. It recommended against restricting travel or closing borders, calling such measures ineffective in preventing the spread of the virus.
The Ukrainian government's precautions have been reasonable considering the potential threat, WHO spokesman Gregory Hartl said.
"By closing schools and canceling mass gatherings in the early stages of an event ... you can slow down the transmission of the virus," Hartl said by phone from the organization's headquarters in Geneva. "So far there is only one confirmed death (from H1N1 in Ukraine), but there is a big event going on there."
The WHO is focusing its efforts on the western city of Lviv, "where reported numbers of cases showing severe manifestations of acute respiratory illness have been especially high," it said.
