Ukraine News: Many Ukrainians Resort to Garlic and Lemons to Fight Flu Epidemic
Fragile Care Worsened Swine Flu In Ukraine
By ELLEN BARRY
14 November 2009
Late Edition – Final
According to a November 14, 2009 New York Times article by Ellen Barry, the World Health Organization reported on Friday that the total number of swine flu illnesses and deaths in Ukraine so far — 265 fatalities throughout the country, with 87 in the Lviv region — were statistically on par with those in other countries.
The article said that serious flu cases increased because the sick avoided hospitalization until their illness was dangerously advanced, reserves of Tamiflu were locked in centralized locations and the supply of ventilators fell short.
Doctors are reportedly blaming the news media and politicians for spreading fear and misinformation. The mayors of Ternopyl and Lviv, which reported their first deaths from atypical pneumonia on Oct. 12 and 19, said the federal epidemiological service would not take necessary measures without laboratory results confirming the presense of H1N1. This step apparently delayed a official response for treatment by close to two weeks.
The article said Ukrainians rely heavily on home remedies, and that is what they did for the third and fourth weeks of October, buying large quantities of garlic and lemons and waiting so long to go to a hospital that by the time they did, many were beyond treatment.
November 17, 2009 at 4:37 pm
I live in Zaporozhye and I can tell that the epidemiological threshold in our city has not been exceeded. In a city disease cases are not fixed by a pork flu.
In the beginning of quarantine which has been entered in city educational institutions in drugstores there were no simple gauze bandages, druggists declared that they are not present in all area. The prices for garlic, an onions and lemons have raised several times.
There is an opinion that politicians and mass-media too force a situation to distract attention from the previous presidential elections, I support this opinion.