40,000 contract serious virus in Ukraine, kills 30

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[Dok]

40,000 contract serious virus in Ukraine, kills 30

As the world enters the H1N1 season, another possible virus emerges as 30 people in the Eastern European country of Ukraine have died from this latest flu.

Each country is dealing with their own cases of the H1N1 swine flu and many have even taken the vaccination but is H1N1 the only flu out there? A viral infection in Ukraine has taken the lives of 30 people and at first it seemed like an ordinary flu but after a week the symptoms worsened.

Radio Netherlands Worldwide reports 40,000 Ukrainians have contracted the disease and at least 100 are in the hospital. Tests are currently being conducted and all is known is that it is not the H1N1 Swine Flu.

A large number of schools and childcare facilities are being shut down, especially in the city of Lvov. Also, government agencies are handing out surgical masks and gloves to people in the western part of Ukraine.

However, Russia Today is reporting that it is A/H1N1 or Californian Flu and the total number of deaths is closer to 40.

Prime Minister Timoshenko stated, “Express-tests cannot provide a hundred percent verification of the virus, they give only 50% accuracy. That’s why blood probes of those who died were sent to special laboratories for further testing. And only this morning it was confirmed that at least 11 deaths were caused by the A/H1N1 virus.”

The Ukrainian government is calling for international aid to help fight their epidemic and President Yushchenko believes the country needs more than $6 million to battle the epidemic(s).

Wolne Media have also reported that the symptoms have been diagnosed as pneumonia. Furthermore, four patients in the hospital in Lviv Oblast have been confirmed to have “very severe pneumonia” after contracting the influenza.

http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/281347

[Dok]

http://www.stevequayle.com/News.alert/09_Disease/091102.born.again.bioweapon.html

Spanish Flu : Born Again Bioweapon?




October 2, 2009
George Ure

The hardest daily decisions in most newsrooms is deciding which story to 'lead' with. In television, that would usually be the story with their the catchiest images to would hold people over through breaks while in print it's a combination of exclusivity, insight, quality of writing, and the bent of the publication (news, glitz, business, sports, etc.).

Since the focus here in on long wave economics - and how they come creeping through to form a control layer over much of human behavior - you'd think the decision to lead with something like the Sunday Financial Times article by ace economist/realist Nouriel Roubini where he explains the "Mother of all carry trades faces an inevitable bust" would be a simple call to make; that's definitely 'above the fold, page one material.

But, around here, decision-making is never so cut and dried. Life has become incredibly complicated since mid 2001 when I started writing about a 'predictive linguistics project run by Cliff High at www.halfpasthuman.com - although at the time, there was not HPH and Cliff was much more reclusive. Here lately, the linguistics have - since last spring - been pointing to an October 25/26 turn date which would lead to a period of extremely high building tensions from that 'turn date' until two or three weeks later, by which time we should all be able to look back over our shoulders and say "Damn! That's what a turn date's all about..."

The hints are sketchy - but that's the nature of the technology. The event is supposed to be something on the order of 85% economic and 15% other and it arises from the GlobalPop portion of the modelspace, which means whatever it is, it should be more or less planet-wide and not just some series of events that puts the fear of God into some fraudsters and greedsters down on Wall Street (or in Washington, where they also seem drawn in sizeable numbers).

today, my bet - subject to change at whim - is that the 'swine' flu story will be "IT" in retrospect. Not only did president Obama issue the national state of emergency right on schedule, but there has been steadily building concern around the topic such the by the end of the week, the shutting down of most of Europe comes into view as a 'nonzero' possibility and with that would come the fulfillment of economic impacts.

Moreover, the whole 'swine flu' story is developing almost along two tracks in the public mind: One track follows the 'offishul' (sic) version which is that the 'swine' flu just arose ad hoc in a swine population in Mexico and spread to the USA and elsewhere. The second track notes that the evidence is thin on the swine part and that the dispersal and now coming of the killer version/bleeding lungs part of 'swine flu' to eastern Europe seems mighty awful suspiciously like a low-grade bio-war between East and West. But let's not get ahead of ourselves - this story will be incubating for another week or possibly longer.

The BIG story this morning, economic in nature, is that "Swine Flu Grips Ukraine". It's in the Wall Street Journal, after all, so it must have something to do with economics, right?

And indeed it does: Ukraine is something of a bread basket area to Russia populated by smart, hard-working people. Since independence in late summer 1991, Ukraine has been evolving into the 29th largest economy in the world on a mix of agriculture, aerospace, and manufacturing while being a critical chunk of real estate to the Russians since goods like natural gas from Russia to Europe through its borders.

As of this weekend, 53 people have died of swine flu, some by what's described as bleeding lungs which hark back to the 1918 Spanish Flu and cytokine storming where the body's defensive mechanisms got crazy and attack the host body itself.

Responding to the situation, the government is closing down schools, some businesses, banning large gatherings, and is trying to buy another 700,000 doses of Tamiflu from Roche. A stock to watch?

The thing we probably should watch over the next few days is how the neighboring countries fare. Already Hungary's health minister says the "Ukraine flu epidemic to create emergency in Hungary" as it may also do in Romanian, Moldova, Slovakia, Poland, Belarus, Russia, and anyone pulling into port from he Black Sea or the Sea of Azov.

Now we go into deep background mode on this with an email I received from a particularly well informed reader who expects this will be one for the history books that should be watched closely:
"This story may be the most important of our lifetimes. I'm a retired Ph.D. biochemist FYI. I conjecture that much of the coming troubles the web bot project speaks of may well arise from this new flu variant. I note that the first cases appeared a few days ago, just the length of the incubation period from October 25th.
OK, a Mossad microbiologist warned two months ago that a new deadly flu bug was going to be released into Ukraine in two months. He got the place right, the bug right, and the time right.

The sequence of all 8 pieces of RNA in the virus that caused the "Spanish flu" pandemic of 1918-1919 is public knowledge. A long dead Inuit woman buried in the permafrost was dug up and the virus taken from her body a couple of years ago and the RNA pieces were sequenced. Quite simple to synthesize these 8 pieces with widely available commercial machines and reagents. Then transfect mammalian cells with the RNA genes to obtain the intact, fully functional, virus. Another quite well known technology. Then grow all you want in fertilized chicken eggs or a mammalian immortal cell line. More quite well known technologies.

What scares the sh*t out of me is that the bleeding in the lungs is exactly what killed a lot of folks in the 1918-19 pandemic. See the great book "The Great Influenza: The story of the deadliest pandemic in history? ." People would literally fall dead walking across the street. The bleeding out of the lungs was most likely the result of a "cytokine storm" that so increased the vascular permeability in the air sacks that blood filled the lungs. The reason why the mortality in the 1918-1919 pandemic was concentrated in the 18-25 yo cohort was that they had the most active immune systems.

Now I've NO conjecture as to who may have let this loose or why. But I do know that the technology is widespread to replicate the 1918-1919 virus that killed 2-4 million Americans and about 50 million world wide. And folks only traveled by ship in 1918. And there is NO vaccine for this flu type.

Hopefully we will know in a couple of weeks the sequences of the 8 RNA pieces in the Ukraine virus. I'll bet the farm that it is a replicant of the "Spanish Flu." If so, the odds are totally infinitesimal that this was NOT a deliberate bioweapon release.

I note that long haul truckers will simply go home and park their rigs if this flu reaches the USA. And exactly what reason do we have to suppose that it will be confined to Ukraine? The average city has 3 days of food. Connect the dots... please...............

A credit is due here. the word "replicant" is from the great sci-fi movie "Blade Runner."

All of this is puts us on the scale of impact somewhere in the middle between inconvenient to bad on one end of the scale to horrific and Biblical at the far end. But the linguistics seem to be pointing to the most terrible of all yet to come with temporal hints around the time of the Whistler Olympics (late February to mid March) for another round of dispersal.

The nonzero probabilities keep adding up and at some point, even the most skeptical human has to reach the point of non-coincidence and conclude what's for now only a possibility: Namely that the factions of the PowersThatBe are at war with one-another and we - humans down here at the worker bee level - are the unwilling cannon fodder for the coming year or longer.

[Dok]

Panic in Ukraine over swine flu

Tuesday, 3 November 2009
BBC Ukrainian Service, Kiev

Officials in Ukraine have closed schools for three weeks, imposed travel restrictions and are limiting public events as the country battles to stop the spread of swine flu.

More than 60 people are believed to have died of respiratory problems in the past week, and the measures are among the toughest to be implemented in Europe to tackle the virus.

It's still not clear whether all the deaths were caused by swine flu, but the news has sparked panic, and people have started wearing masks across the country.

Appeal for calm

The Ukrainian health minister Vasyl Knyazevych has asked the media only to report the comments of medical experts following a series of misleading reports which fuelled public anxiety.

On national television, he said Ukraine had the same problems as the rest of the world.

He also called on fellow politicians to give people 'a week of silence,' and said there was no need for panic.

However, his calls may already be too late.

255,000 cases of flu and acute respiratory problems have been registered among the 46m population. 15,000 have been hospitalised.

The World Health Organisation says there is no evidence to suggest that Ukraine had a bad outbreak of swine flu, but it has agreed to send a team there to help the country cope.

President Viktor Yushchenko has also appealed for international help.

Government response

The government has faced growing criticism of its handling of the outbreak.

Some opposition politicians have been particularly critical of the health minister who they not only want to be sacked, but jailed.

Opposition politicians from the Party of the Regions say the first reported cases were at the beginning of October, but by middle of the month there had already been confirmed deaths.

They say the authorities should have provided accurate information about the outbreak so that Ukrainians could seek appropriate medical help.

Instead, the opposition says, many people have resorted to self-treatment.

Experts say Ukraine was unprepared for the swine flu outbreak, and the hunt for political scapegoats is likely to continue.

The opposition leader, Viktor Yanukovych, has called on parliament to scrutinise the government's actions.

Investigation calls

The influential National Security and Defence Council has called on the judiciary to investigate why Ukraine was unable to prevent the outbreak.

President Viktor Yushchenko has even asked the country's security service to look at whether pharmacies are guilty of price-fixing anti-flu medications.

Critics have also rounded on Ukrainian television channels which they say have wall-to-wall coverage of Ukraine's leading politicians, but not leading medical specialists.

This, they say, is exacerbating public concern rather than allaying popular fears.

Some analysts say swine flu is being used by the President and his arch rival the Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko to score political points ahead of presidential elections in January.

Supporters of Prime Minister Tymoshenko, who remains at bitter loggerheads with the President, say he is trying to blame her government for the situation.

Playing politics

Aware of the electoral sensitivities, she assured the Ukrainian public that she stood with them, and took "every responsibility for the government's handling of swine flu on herself."

"The world has given us not one, but two great trials - first, the financial crisis and now this horrible flu."

Ukraine's leading political analysts say the handling of swine flu has become one of the key electoral issues.

According to them, rival candidates are seeking to take the initiative in battling the spread of the virus.

"The swine flu outbreak has overshadowed all the other negative campaigning we were seeing, especially around Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko," says Vitaly Kulyk, a political scientist at Kiev's Centre for Civil Society.

"The main players are using the flu in their propaganda war," he adds.

Appeals for help

Opposition leader Viktor Yanukovych, whose party is backed by Ukraine's most powerful oligarch, has called on Ukrainians to donate to a special fund which was set up by his party.

He said he wanted to hold a TV marathon to raise funds to fight the epidemic.

The first aircraft to arrive in Ukraine from Switzerland carrying emergency medical supplies, was met by the country's leadership.

They demonstrated how to put face masks on in front of cameras.

Many Ukrainians however, are asking why their government did not act sooner.

It was evident in May or June that swine flu was spreading around the world, they say, yet Ukraine failed to stockpile sufficient supplies of medication.

Only now, when Ukraine faces an epidemic of swine flu, has the government started to act.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8338835.stm

[EvadingGrid]

Ukraine is deep inside the Matrix of Evil, Propaganda, and Zibignew Brezinskis Pet.

They are being used, because it is home to the Russian Fleet at Sevastapool in The Crimea.

[Dok]

Reported Cases of Mystery Flu in Ukraine Double in Two Days

478,456 Influenza/ARI

24,003 Hospitalized

60 Ventilators

81 Deaths

The above numbers are from the latest update from Ukraine.  The number of infected patients has almost doubled to just under ½ million, compared to the report two days ago (see map).  Hospitalized patients also have spiked higher, to 24K from 15K.  ICU cases are not listed, but 60 on ventilators are.  However, most (37) of those on ventilators are Chernivisti Oblast, but Lviv, which has the most fatalities and cases, has none, suggesting the data is incomplete or there are significant shortages of ventilators.  The number of dead has risen to 81, but media reports describe additional fatalities, include those in the Kiev Oblast.

The explosion of cases again raises concerns that the number of fatalities is significantly higher than the 81 listed.  Media reports have described an equal number of pneumonia fatalities which were not considered flu related.  The basis of these exclusions remains unclear.  Similarly, anecdotal reports suggest the number of fatalities is markedly higher than the 81 in the table.

The rapid rise in reported infections, hospitalizations, and deaths in the past few days raise concerns that the virus is transmitting very efficiently.  Spikes in cases have been reported throughout the northern hemisphere, but the spike in fatalities and the frequency in hemorrhagic cases in Ukraine have raised concerns.

Earlier media reports suggest that an update by WHO might be issued today and include preliminary analysis of samples sent to Mill Hill in London.

Daily updates on the rapidly evolving situation in Ukraine, including sequence analysis, would be useful.
Media Links


http://www.blacklistednews.com/news-6211-0-6-6--.html

[Dok]

A summary of sorts...

This has to be the most under-reported event of the week.  Why has all mainstream US news outlets decided to completely ignore this story?

There is a massive outbreak of a seemingly more serious form of the swine flu (OR SOMETHING ELSE!) going on in Ukraine.

192,000 infected on Nov 2nd
http://info-wars.org/2009/11/02/ukraine-swine-flu-outbreak-192000-infected-is-it-pneumonic-plague/

The number of cases in Ukraine doubled in two days (almost 500,000 as of yesterday)
http://www.blacklistednews.com/news-6211-0-6-6--.html

Some cases are seeing lungs fill up with blood (severe hemmorhagic pneumonia via a cytokine storm which was one of the main cause of fatalities in the very severe 1918 swine flu strain).  A cytokine storm causes the immune system of normally healthy adults to overreact causing severe illness or death (the healthier your immune system, the worse off you will be).
http://www.recombinomics.com/News/11040901/Ukraine_Hemor_Clusters.html

Reports mass acute respiratory problems in Lviv
http://mignews.com.ua/en/articles/376537.html

Information on the 1918 flu
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1918_flu_pandemic

What makes this story very interesting is (1) a scientist warned of this back in August and was arrested right after and (2) reports from Ukraine of planes spraying something in the skies over cities just before things got really bad.

(1) According to Dr. True Ott, a man called him after an interview on his radio show on Aug. 11th stating that he had proof that Baxter was manufacturing a bioweaponized version of the flu vaccine in Ukraine that used RNA from the deadly 1918 flu.

Overview with some history on Baxter's past "mistakes"
http://davidrothscum.blogspot.com/2009/10/has-baxter-international-released.html

Dr. Ott talking about the call with the man
http://halkinnaman.com/ed/audio_rr/dr_ott_moshe.mp3

Dr. Deagle discussing the incident
http://halkinnaman.com/ed/audio_rr/Bill_Deagle_19_August_2009_moshe_project_camelot.mp3

The next day Aug. 12th, this guy was chased down in LA for supposedly threatening the White House (read first two comments after the article as well).
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/08/14/man-suspected-of-making-t_n_259330.html

Dr. Ott discusses Joseph Moshe's call on the Aug 17th Dr. Deagle show (6 minute mark of 2nd link)

1. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aWf3kngl0oo
2. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KwDUIjtz6e0 (discusses Joseph Moshe at minute 6)
3. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8PFOJdEAaVE
4. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rsh8X7VQovg
5. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eXTTrU5oj1c
6. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XRIORVgEeY0

Another Dr. Deagle clip from Aug 10th (interesting they were saying the swine flu will begin producing more cytokine storms two months ago)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IFGWd0cBjho

(2) Ukrainian citizens report aerial spraying on October 30th, right before the more serious form of the virus was being reported.

"Reports of helicopters and light airplanes spraying aerosols over Kiev, Lviv, Ternopil, and other cities throughout Ukraine are tonight flooding online forums and websites, hundreds of people have verified the reports with their own eye-witness accounts."
http://remixxworld.blogspot.com/2009/11/authorities-deny-aircraft-are-spraying.html

Ukrainian authorities are denying eyewitness reports of aerial spraying
http://info-wars.org/2009/10/31/panic-in-ukraine-authorities-deny-aircraft-spraying-aerosols-over-cities-martial-law-expected/

Other related articles...

Ukraine to declare martial law?
http://www.infowars.net/articles/november2009/051109Ukraine.htm

Presidential address to Ukraine on Nov 4th
http://www.president.gov.ua/en/news/15609.html

Vaccine opponents to be arrested in Ukraine
http://www.theflucase.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1607%3Avaccine-opponents-in-the-ukraine-to-be-arrested&catid=41%3Ahighlighted-news&Itemid=105&lang=en

Another story on Joseph Moshe
http://www.unfictional.com/joseph-moshe-mossad-bioweapon-swine-flu-vaccine-westwood

Ukraine outbreak might be the plague
http://remixxworld.blogspot.com/2009/11/mysterious-virus-hits-ukraine-and.html

WHO arrives in Ukraine to study new flu
http://www.cidrap.umn.edu/cidrap/content/influenza/swineflu/news/nov0309ukraine.html

Someone made a short summary of these events in video form here
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xb0o1z_alerte-ukraine-pneumonie-inconnue-c_news

As usual, during the time of the outbreak there was a bioterrorism "exercise" going on...
http://www.interpol.int/Public/BioTerrorism/tabletop/default.asp

Is it no surprise vaccine manufacturers are granted legal immunity?
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/31971355/ns/health-swine_flu/

Scare the public by saying there is a limited supply of vaccines...
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/expat/expatnews/6486534/US-swine-flu-vaccine-runs-dry.html

...So they will eat the cookie
http://www.sott.net/articles/show/196224-H1N1-Vaccine-Shortage-Fabricated-to-Create-Hysteria-Boost-Demand-

http://www.ubertrue.com

[Dok]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qQD0GFUAZrA

[Dok]

Ukrainian election might be postponed
 
Ukraine's presidential election in January could be postponed because of swine flu, a newspaper quoted a government official as saying Friday.
Igor Popov, an aide to President Viktor Yushchenko, said in the Ukrainskaya Pravda daily that the government might declare an emergency and reschedule the election on May 30.

"The epidemic has radically changed the course of the election campaign," Popov was quoted as saying. "A ban on public events has affected opposition candidates."

He added that presidential hopefuls with government jobs can freely visit regions that are quarantined because of the flu, while opposition candidates cannot and "feel discriminated upon."

A total of 16 candidates have been registered so far, election officials said.

Ukraine's flu death toll has climbed to 109 since last week's outbreak in the western city of Ternopil. The World Health Organization says most flu cases in the country can be assumed to be H1N1.

Yushchenko and Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, his former ally turned bitter foe, will face off for the presidency at the election.

The vote might overturn the results of the 2004 Orange Revolution that swept a pro-Western government to power in Ukraine.

Leading in the polls is Viktor Yanukovich, who was beaten in 2005 by Yushchenko, but has pulled ahead on a platform that emphasizes closer ties with Russia.

http://www.etaiwannews.com/etn/news_content.php?id=1101858&lang=eng_news

[Dok]

Death toll still rising in Ukraine's flu outbreak

Kiev - The death toll in Ukraine's flu outbreak continued to rise on Thursday.

A total of 95 persons have died from flu-related symptoms since the disease struck Ukraine's western provinces late last month, said Zinovy Mytnik, vice health minister, in comments reported by the Interfax news agency.

   A total of 633,877 Ukrainians nationwide have registered with health authorities as suffering from the flu, though some have recovered since the disease's late October outbreak, Mytnik said.

   Ukraine's Ministry of Health on Wednesday gave a total of currently infected at some 470,000.

   The particularly virulent A/H1N1 flu strain, or swine flu, was likely responsible for a significant proportion of the infections, based on laboratory testing thus far, Mytnik said, speaking at a Kiev press conference.

   Since the beginning of the flu outbreak, Ukraine's Health Ministry had sent 31 samples from persons infected with flu to a British laboratory to be checked for the presence of swine flu, of which 15 tested positive.

   A former Soviet republic, Ukraine lacks a modern public health infrastructure and, since the beginning of the flu outbreak in late October, has seen severe shortages of even simple medical supplies such as protective masks and flu remedies.

   No Ukrainian laboratory is capable of testing for the presence of swine flu, Mytnik said.

   International medical assistance continued arriving in Ukraine on Thursday, with European Union nations taking the lead. Top contributors were Slovakia, Austria, Hungary and Poland - the last being the first country to respond to a Ukrainian October 31 appeal for foreign aid, according to an Intefax report.

   EU-donated medical supplies en route or already in Ukraine included protective masks, respiration equipment and surgical gloves.

   Emergency shipments of the swine flu treatment Tamiflu, produced in Switzerland, first began arriving by cargo plane to Ukraine on Sunday.

   Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, on a visit to the western city of Chernovtsy, near the epicentre of the flu outbreak, said government efforts to control the flu's spread were working.

   'There is no need to to invoke a national emergency,' she said, according to a Korrespondent website report.

   Tymoshenko's government has attempted to control the flu outbreak with the imposition of a partial quarantine of eight western provinces most badly hit by the disease, a military-style mobilization of state-owned fabric and clothes factories to mass-produce protective masks, and limits to allowable public gatherings.

    In the midst of a campaign for Ukraine's presidency, Tymoshenko has, since the beginning of the flu outbreak, repeatedly attacked the private health industry, accusing drug manufacturers of inflating prices artificially and pharmacists of hoarding medical supplies.

   A government consumer protection agency in Lviv, one of the worst-hit cities in the flu outbreak, on Thursday filed a class-action suit against local health officials, accusing them of conspiring with private health suppliers to price-gouge consumers of medical supplies, the Unian news service reported.



Read more: http://www.monstersandcritics.com/news/health/news/article_1511572.php/Death-toll-still-rising-in-Ukraine-s-flu-outbreak#ixzz0W7kbKbK4

[Dok]

Clusters of Hemorrhagic H1N1 Pneumonia in Ukraine
Recombinomics Commentary 11:54
November 4, 2009
Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast

All the six dead young people had symptoms of severe hemmorhagic pneumonia. The disease starts slowly, with temperature rising to 37.2 - 37.3 degrees, slight cough and pain in joints. Nasal catarrh developed at the end of the second or third day. Autopsy revealed that the lungs were soaked with blood, the oblast chief specialist said.

The above comments are from an early story describing cases in Ukraine.  The clustering of hemorrhagic cases raised concerns.  The concern was increased by anecdotal reports citing a high frequency of such cases in Lviv (see map).  The recent WHO announcement that they were initially focusing of severe acute respiratory illness in Lviv also increased concerns.

Hemorrhagic pneumonia was also observed in the 1918 pandemic and was thought to be linked to cytokine storm. Consequently, those with robust immune systems (previously health young adults) disproportionately died, which has also been seen in the current outbreak (Mexico, US, and worldwide).  However, the cases in Ukraine appear to be clustered, raising concerns that the virus has changed.

However, the change may be minor, since the current H1N1 has produced the above symptoms in earlier cases.  More severe cases may be linked to a higher viral load, which could be linked to minor genetic changes, or simply due to concentration of virus in schools.  In the US the spread of the virus has been linked to school openings, which lead to an explosion of cases and subsequent student deaths.  However, now there are increases in fatalities in teachers and administrators, increasing concerns worldwide.

In Ukraine, weather changes and heating issues may have led to a surge in cases, and increased concentrations of virus could have produced conditions favoring high viral loads and increased cytokine storms.

Samples have been sent to Mill Hill, and sequence data should be released shortly.  Similarly, investigations on hemorrhagic pneumonia in lviv should help resolve the mechanism for the high concentration of such cases in western Ukraine.

However, H1N1 spread in Kiev has been noted, and other countries such as Belarus have announced additional H1N1 suspect or confirmed fatalities.

Sequence analysis of these cases and an update on the frequency of hemorrhagic pneumonia in Ukraine and worldwide would be useful.

[Dok]

Ukraine Suffers From Political Games More Than From Pandemic Disease
http://english.pravda.ru/news/world/ussr/02-11-2009/110259-ukraine_political_pandemic_dise-0


Ukraine is in a panic about so-called swine flu, with officials closing schools, imposing travel restrictions and limiting public gatherings. But in fact in the country many are almost sure that politics make a fuss just to gain more election points.
   
The World Health Organization has found no evidence that Ukraine's outbreak is particularly severe, leading some political analysts to say Ukraine's politicians are using the swine flu scare to earn political points ahead of the country's presidential election in January.

  On Monday, Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko dramatically met a Swiss shipment of anti-viral drugs at the Kiev airport. Last week, her main rival, President Viktor Yushchenko, said 48 people had died of flu and thousands were infected.

  The health minister, Vasyl Knyazevich, warned on Friday that nationwide quarantines could be imposed as the virus is spreading "extremely fast."

  On Monday, his ministry said 67 people have died of flu, but it did not specify how many of deaths were related to swine flu. In any case, that is a tiny number in a country like Ukraine, which has a population of 40 million.

  Worldwide, outbreaks of the regular seasonal flu claim 50,000 lives each year.

  At the government's request, the World Health Organization has sent a team to help Ukraine deal with the outbreak.

  The January election is a pivotal vote which could overturn the 2004 Orange Revolution that swept a pro-Western government to power.

  Viktor Yanukovych, the Regions' Party candidate for the presidency, has not yet commented on the swine flu uproar. Yanukovych, who was beaten in 2005 by Yushchenko, is leading in the polls with a platform that emphasizes closer ties with Russia.

  During the past five years of Yushchenko's presidency, relations with Moscow reached historic lows. Yushchenko's ratings have fallen to single digits in the wake of the economic crisis, which hit Ukraine hard, and years of political gridlock with Tymoshenko.

The Associated Press  has contributed to the report.

[Dok]

Facts about Pneumonic Plague
http://www.bt.cdc.gov/agent/plague/factsheet.asp

Plague is an infectious disease that affects animals and humans. It is caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis. This bacterium is found in rodents and their fleas and occurs in many areas of the world, including the United States.

Y. pestis is easily destroyed by sunlight and drying. Even so, when released into air, the bacterium will survive for up to one hour, although this could vary depending on conditions.

Pneumonic plague is one of several forms of plague. Depending on circumstances, these forms may occur separately or in combination:

    * Pneumonic plague occurs when Y. pestis infects the lungs. This type of plague can spread from person to person through the air.

Transmission can take place if someone breathes in aerosolized bacteria,
which could happen in a bioterrorist attack.

Pneumonic plague is also spread by breathing in Y. pestis suspended in respiratory droplets from a person (or animal) with pneumonic plague. Becoming infected in this way usually requires direct and close contact with the ill person or animal. Pneumonic plague may also occur if a person with bubonic or septicemic plague is untreated and the bacteria spread to the lungs.

==========================================================


Ukraine: Influenza or Pneumonic Plague? The situation is getting worse and worse
Publication time: 2 November 2009, 21:37
http://www.kavkazcenter.com/eng/content/2009/11/02/11155.shtml
Ukrainian News Agency "Fraza" reported that, according to informed sources, "it has been confirmed 100 % Pneumonic Plague in Ukraine".

The Agency asserts that "the head physician of the medical institutions has sent out an informal disposal - not to sow panic, to refute the information about the plague, and to speak only of swine influenza".

It is also required to distribute masks at health facilities with 8 levels of protection and anti-plague protection costumes. There is also an informal order not to allow any visitors to see the patients.

According to the "Fraza" agency, "today in Ukraine pneumonic plague is going in parallel with swine flu. The plague has killed over 60 people, and about 14 from the flu.

Meanwhile, the press service of the Ministry of Health of Ukraine reported that there is only one death from "California" virus A/N1N1 in Ukraine.

"In Ukraine there are 22 cases recorded of the virus A/N1N1 disease and there is only one fatal consequence as a result. All other cases of death from influenza has only a speculative attitude to "California" virus," press service reports.

The situation with the epidemic of influenza is a complex and unpredictable because of the propensity of influenza A/H1N1 virus to mutation, said First Deputy Minister of Health Mr. Lazoryshynets on Monday, November 2.

"The situation is complicated and unpredictable. We found a strain of this virus in our laboratory ... This virus is dangerous because it can mutate, and we can get a very different kind of virus, which was in Latin America or in Mexico, now it is European ", - said Lazoryshynets at a press conference, the "Correspondent" magazine informs.

At a press conference Lazoryshynets also said that there are 22  officially confirmed cases of influenza A/H1N1 in Ukraine.

First Vice Prime Minister Oleksandr Turchinov previously stated that as of Monday morning, November 2, there are 64 registered deaths in Ukraine from flu and acute respiratory viral infections.

Meantime, according to official information the highest level of epidemiological risk is declared in Ivano-Frankivsk (Stanislav) area, from 2 November. This decision was made by Ivano-Frankivsk Regional emergency epidemiological commission at the extended session on November 2.

In accordance with the Commission, quarantine will last for all educational institutions in the area until 20 November, a commission to monitor the distribution of medicines is also made, which come in the region as humanitarian aid.

The commission agreed that health workers will provide individual first aid kit. There will be extra transport allocated to visit patients by the district doctors.

According to the Ministry of Health, today in Ukraine
there are 255 000 registered cases of influenza and SARS,
of whom 15 000 were hospitalized.

Ministry of Transport and Communications of Ukraine introduced a permanent monitoring of the situation on a clear implementation of the planned anti-epidemic measures in public transport. A special monitoring group studied the transport department on November 2, how the anti-epidemiological measures were applied at the Kiev railway station, central bus station of the capital and the International airport "Borispol".

Polish epidemiologists November 3 arrive in Ukraine for obtaining specimens from patients with the Ukrainians. The experts will arrive in Lviv, where it is supposed to take 190 samples.  The experts will arrive in Lviv, where 190 samples are to be taken.

Lithuanian Foreign Ministry on November 2 recommended to the residents of Lithuania to refrain from unnecessary trips to the Ukraine.
Department of Monitoring,
Kavkaz Center

[Dok]

Ukraine pleads for help as flu epidemic spreads
Published 02 November, 2009, 23:09
Edited 04 November, 2009, 18:46
http://rt.tv/Top_News/2009-11-02/ukraine-pleas-help-flu.html

Ukrainian President Victor Yushchenko has called on the international community to help the country combat the swine flu epidemic which hit the country last week. Kiev is taking emergency measures to stop the outbreak.

The president has sent letters to the European Commission, NATO’s Secretary General, and the heads of Belarus, Hungary, Moldova, Poland, Romania, Slovakia and the US asking for humanitarian aid, said the presidential press service. Ukraine needs antiviral medicine, medical masks, lung ventilators and other equipment. Several countries have already agreed to help, while Russia offered aid on its own initiative.

Ukrainian government has made an emergency purchase of Tamiflu medicine from Switzerland. A shipment of 300 million doses, worth $2.5 million, was airlifted on Sunday night. According to the president’s press service, the seller offered a discount price for Ukraine. Given that it could be the only remedy for those infected, Prime Minister Timoshenko took a hard line on its distribution:

"These medications have been imported at a wholesale price of 67 Hryvnia per pack. And what I'm holding now in my hand now is what our Foreign Minister purchased in a pharmacy the other day for 6000 Hryvnia, and this package contains 10 packs,” she exclaimed.

“This means that 1 pack is sold at 600 Hryvnia! These swindlers in privately-owned pharmacies sell it to people at ten times the price,” she added.

The medicine will be delivered to hospitals and medical emergency service to treat flu patients. It will not be sold in drug stores to prevent speculative trade. Timoshenko added that a second purchase of a similar amount of medicine is being considered.

Meanwhile, the epidemic is spreading over the country. The Health Ministry said Monday that of the 70 victims of flu and acute respiratory diseases who died over the last two weeks, 22 have been confirmed to have had the A/H1N1 strain.

Earlier it had been estimated that almost 185,000 people were suffering in Ukraine, and more than 7,000 have been admitted to hospitals. Of those, 123 were in critical condition.

As the death toll from respiratory diseases continues to rise, panic spreads among the population. In Kiev, a city so far untouched by the virus outbreak, roughly every third citizen wears a protective mask, at times a self-made one.

Anti-flu drugs and related paraphernalia are increasingly difficult to come accross. Angry people point fingers at everyone, from drug store owners to the authorities, However, officials say that it's the people who are responsible for the problem. Denis Shevchenko, the head of Ukraine's pharmaceutical union, explained:

"The medication is ordered based on a calculation of adequare supply of treatment and preventive therapy drugs per person," he said. "If, in a fir of panic, people buy ten times more than they require, any forcast of this process becomes uneless," he concluded.

It is difficult to say how many of the people affected have A/H1N1. Ukraine has too small a number of laboratories to be able to identify the swine flu virus and has to rely on foreign services, which makes the testing process even longer. The government plans to purchase more equipment to monitor the epidemic more efficiently. A mission of the World Health Organization is to arrive in Ukraine soon to help combat the outbreak.

So far quarantine has been declared in nine regions that are most affected by the disease. Schools and universities have been closed until further notice, and people are advised to stay at home and keep away from crowds.

There are some fears that the epidemic will harm the presidential election campaign which is currently underway in Ukraine. The election is scheduled for January 17, and with restrictions on public assembly, which some politicians have suggested imposing due to the outbreak, campaigning may become difficult for candidates. However, Deputy Prime Minister Aleksandr Turchinov assured that the outbreak will not stop the election. “Despite temporary difficulties with the spread of the infection, the election will go smoothly,” he said.

Read also – H1N1 Epidemic: World Health Organisation Urges People of High Risk to Get Vaccinated

[Dok]

ZetaTalk: Ukraine Plague
written November 5, 2009
http://www.zetatalk.com/index/zeta543.htm

    Urgent. In Ukraine Walk Viruses Pneumonic Plague and Swine Flu.
    November 2, 2009
    http://www.fraza.ua/news/02.11.09/77113.html
        The head physician of the medical institutions sent out an informal disposal - not to sow panic, to refute the information about the plague, but to speak only of swine flu. Pneumonic plague is a particularly dangerous infections. This is one of the most aggressive infections that threaten human life, along with anthrax. Typically, the agent of pneumonic plague is transferred ferrets, coney, other rodents, including rats, living in warm climates. They are the natural reservoir. There are two main clinical forms of plague: bubonic and pneumonic.
         
    Ukraine Closes All Schools To Fight Swine Flu
    November 2, 1009
    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/11/02/ukraine-closes-all-school_n_342633.html
        Urging its citizens not to panic, Ukraine on Monday closed the nation's schools for a week to avoid the spread of swine flu and suggested that nightclubs, cinemas and food markets in the west also shut down. The World Health Organization said Monday there was no evidence that Ukraine had a bad outbreak of swine flu. Nevertheless, all schools have been closed for a week across Ukraine, even in the capital, Kiev, where there have been no confirmed cases of swine flu. All outdoor markets have been closed in the western region of Lviv, where the governor also urged cinemas, cafes, nightclubs and theaters to shut down until further notice.
         
Joseph Moshe (MOSSAD Microbiologist): "Swine Flu Vaccine is Bioweapon"
    August 21, 2009
    http://www.unfictional.com/joseph-moshe-mossad-bioweapon-swine-flu-vaccine-westwood
        Professor Moshe said that Baxter's Ukrainian lab was in fact producing a bioweapon disguised as a vaccine. He claimed that the vaccine contained an adjuvant (additive) designed to weaken the immune system, and replicated RNA from the virus responsible for the 1918 pandemic Spanish flu, causing global sickness and mass death.

Rumors abound, but the current outbreak of the plague in the Ukraine is not a deliberate release of droplets via small planes, is not an attempt by the Russians to punish and threaten Ukraine or European politicians, is not caused by contaminated vaccines produced by Baxter or other production companies, and is not some kind of New World Order incentive to declaring martial law around the world.

(go back to sleep, nothing to be alarmed about people. Obviously too many people have been handling rat traps...  right. )

The great plague outbreaks, the Black Death, occurred in Europe which obviously has the plague bacillus indiginous in its rat population. At the onset of winter, rats seek shelter indoors, and invade human lodgings. The onset of winter is also a cold and flu season for humans. Traps are set, and in handling the dead rats, those with a cold or mild flu might pull out a hanky to blow their nose. What is causing the spread of the pneumonic plague at this time in the Ukraine is fear of the swine flu. This fear is ramped up by authorities intent on immunizing the public to the greatest extent possible, due to their own fears of another genetically engineered flu virus being released. Thus nervous, those who empty rat traps and wipe their runny nose with a hanky, also put this hanky up as a face mask when encountering others. They thus send any plague bacillus to their lungs, and the cycle begins.

Pneumonic plague outbreak in Congo sparks WHO response
    February 18, 2005
    http://www.cidrapsummit.org/cidrap/content/bt/plague/news/feb1805plague.html
        An unusual outbreak of pneumonic plague that has killed at least 61 people and potentially sickened hundreds of others is the focus of a World Health Organization (WHO) mission in a war-torn area of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Plague is endemic in the northeastern province of Orientale, near Uganda, but this outbreak is unusual because it appears to be exclusively the pneumonic form of plague, which accounts for only 2% of reported plague cases overall. The pneumonic form can spread from person to person via aerosolized bacteria, bypassing the usual route of flea bites or infective materials. Antibiotics can treat the disease and prevent a secondary outbreak.
         
Quarantine: Pneumonic Plague Outbreak in China
    August 9, 2009
    http://thefastertimes.com/globalpandemics/2009/08/09/quarantine-pneumonic-plague-outbreak-in-china/
        Pneumonic plague has killed three during a recent outbreak which began at the end of July. Pneumonic plague is extremely rare, but is the most deadly type of plague. Since the start of the outbreak, nine additional human infections with Yersinia pestis, the bacteria which causes plague, have been confirmed in this Tibetan Area of Qinghai Province. The threat of disease spread was considered serious enough that the Chinese authorities took aggressive measures to keep 10,000 inhabitants of Qinghai province under quarantine.

[Dok]

09-01-2008 17:28 Domestic doctors do not rule out flu epidemic in Ukraine
http://www.nrcu.gov.ua/index.php?id=148&listid=58335
However, according to the Health Ministry's press service, flu morbidity and acute respiratory viral infections have not exceeded regular seasonal levels in the last two weeks.

The disease rate has not reached epidemic proportions in any of the 10 monitored cities across Ukraine. Morbidity rates fell considerably during the first week of January with as few as 24,624 patients registered, most of them aged 7 to 14.

================================================

From the WHO website:

Pandemic (H1N1) 2009, Ukraine - update 1
http://www.who.int/csr/don/2009_11_03/en/index.html

3 November 2009 -- According to the Ministry of Health of Ukraine, the country has now recorded more than 250 000 cases of influenza-like illness, with 235 patients requiring intensive care. As of 2 November, 70 deaths from acute respiratory illness have been reported.

Regions in western Ukraine continue to show the highest rates of acute respiratory illness/influenza-like illness. The level of activity in the Kyiv area is also increasing rapidly.

Laboratory testing in Ukraine has confirmed pandemic H1N1 influenza virus in samples taken from patients in two of the most affected regions. As the pandemic virus has rapidly become the dominant influenza strain worldwide, it can be assumed that most cases of influenza in Ukraine are caused by the H1N1 virus.

As elsewhere, WHO strongly recommends early treatment with the antiviral drugs, oseltamivir or zanamivir, for patients who meet treatment criteria, even in the absence of a positive laboratory test confirming H1N1 infection.

At the request of the government, a multi-disciplinary team of nine experts has been deployed by WHO and arrived in Kyiv yesterday evening. Discussions with the Minister of Health were held this morning to brief the team.

Team members will now begin field investigations to characterize the clinical and epidemiological features of the outbreak. Work will initially begin in Lviv region, where reported numbers of cases showing severe manifestations of acute respiratory illness have been especially high. Two virologists on the team have started working at the National Influenza Centre and the laboratories of the Central Sanitary and Epidemiological Station in Kyiv to provide diagnostic support.

Samples sent by the Ministry of Health were received today by the WHO Collaborating Centre for Reference and Research on Influenza, Mill Hill in London, UK. The laboratory will conduct confirmatory tests and further characterize the virus.

Many questions remain to be answered. The outbreak in Ukraine may be indicative of how the virus can behave in the northern hemisphere during the winter season, particularly in health care settings typically found in Eastern Europe.

Given the potential significance of this outbreak as an early warning signal, WHO commends the government of Ukraine for its transparent reporting and open sharing of samples.

WHO continues to recommend no closing of borders and no restrictions on international travel, including to Ukraine. Experience shows that such measures will not stop further spread of the virus.