All Ukrainian hospitals and polyclinics are on red alert. Kyiv has formally announced the onslaught of a flu epidemic and the city administration has prescribed quarantine for grade schools. Flu symptoms were found in 27,000 residents last week, although the Ukrainian Flu Center says not to worry — there have been 45,000 such cases already and there has been a relatively low incidence in the epicenter. Previous flu epidemics would advance on Kyiv after affecting industrial areas in the east and in the north, bordering on Russia. This time the reverse is true. Alla Myronenko, head of the Ukrainian center’s laboratory, says it was well to be expected. The Ukrainian capital was spared from last year’s epidemic, meaning that this year the populace has weaker immunity defenses, compared to those surviving the disease in 2002. Nevertheless, outlying regions are fully alerted to the situation. There is a special flu committee operating in every town, coordinating anti-flu activities, relying on the incidence statistics. They also are determining whether medical personnel reinforcements and conversion of health institutions into flu treatment centers are necessary.
So far no radical measures have been taken even in Kyiv, although quarantine is considered a timely precaution. Experts believe it will spare at least one-third of the students the risk. Last school week, the flu incidence rate was 20%. It is also true, however, that quarantine is not always approved by parents and the Ministry of Science and Education. First, it causes problems with the curriculum; second, on such occasions body injuries and accidents involving children tend to show a dramatic increase. In the West, where flu epidemics are also widespread, the problem is solved in a simpler and more effective manner: voluntary-compulsory inoculation in spring. In Ukraine, the shot costs an average of 30 hryvnias, meaning that not every family can afford it. For a pensioner (this category is at the top of the risk list) it means one-third of what he or she is paid every month. Every year MSE recommends the regional administrations to find finance sources in local budgets to secure medications and free inoculation. In most cases such aid is meant for the inmates of elders’ homes and boarding schools. The free inoculation ratio varies from one region to the next, although Kyiv, Dnipropetrovsk, Zaporizhzhia, and Donetsk oblasts are invariably in the lead.
Statistics show that large firms and organizations pay most attention to flu epidemics. Last year, they accounted for 54% inoculations. 90% of those vaccinated at the expense of organizations or family budgets avoided contracting the flu, thanks to what experts call the potency of the vaccine. Whereas previous vaccines were made using live or inactivated flu viruses, in most cases not matching those actually at play, now flu centers all over the world warn pharmacists of the coming epidemic well in advance and in every detail, so they can work out an actual vaccine. In 2000-01 (last year’s epidemic was not intensive), UAH 11,374,000 was spent on inoculation, preventing a total of 365,594 cases of flu in Ukraine, thus sparing the budget the loss of UAH 57,764,000. The national health system saved slightly more than UAH 46 million. Treating a case of flu or acute respiratory disease costs an average of 158 hryvnias. Alla Myronenko warns that the sum may be a thousand hryvnias in the event of inadequate treatment followed by complications, such as pneumonia or meningoencephalitis. An alarming trend has been registered of late with people dying of post-flu pneumonia even at the age of 20, mostly because very many do not attribute high fever, weakness, and headache to the flu and rely on home remedies like hot tea with guelder rose or raspberries, and do not stay in bed.
Six lethal cases of post-flu complications have been registered in Russia and the incidence rate in Moscow is 24.2% over the epidemic time. Fortunately, the situation is different in Ukraine (as it was last year), although there is no proof that such cases have not taken place. Alla Myronenko says medical statistics under the circumstances are not reliable. Be it as it may, Ukrainian doctors say not to worry. The current epidemic does not promise to be intensive or of long duration. Every week the Antiepidemics Station tests hundreds of patient samples. Last week they detected mostly parainfluenza and adenoviruses, and the flu virus only in five cases.







