Official: Flu Outbreak Not Yet Epidemic
Combined Reports
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Eduard Korniyenko / Reuters
Students with protective masks attend a university lecture in the southern Russian city of Stavropol on Monday.
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Seasonal flu has not yet reached epidemic levels in St. Petersburg, the city’s chief public health physician, Igor Rakitin, said on Monday, Interfax reported. Rakitin described the situation as “under control,” but noted that 15 of St. Petersburg’s 760 schools have been placed under quarantine since Oct. 17. “The rate of illness has been rising since Sept. 14. It is particularly high among children between the ages of 7 and 14,” Rakitin explained. Overall, instances of the flu have increased by 20 percent. According to Rakitin, the disease will not be considered an epidemic until 9,000 new cases are reported daily. If the rate reaches 13,000 to 14,000, the city will take quarantine measures, he said. Meanwhile, seasonal flu vaccines are still being administered to the city’s residents. Sixteen percent of the population, or 700,000 people, have already been vaccinated, Rakitin said. As a vaccination campaign against H1N1 flu began across Russia on Monday, Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Timoshenko said Ukraine’s flu epidemic is abating. The number of new cases dropped to 32,448 yesterday from 127,252 on Nov. 4, Timoshenko said at a meeting with representatives of the World Health Organization in Kiev. The WHO this month sent a team of experts to the country to investigate the outbreak of respiratory disease that had struck 969,247 and killed 155 people as of Nov. 8. It’s too early to report on final findings, said Jukka Pukkila, the head of the Geneva-based WHO mission in the country, at a joint briefing with Timoshenko today. The situation in Ukraine is “similar to what we see in other countries,” he said. The national epidemic may “go on for several weeks or maybe even couple of months,” he said. “All eyes are on Ukraine now,” Pukkila said. “WHO stands ready to support Ukraine on getting pandemic vaccination as soon as possible.” Ukraine is counting on the WHO to help promote flu vaccination in the country and to obtain the pandemic shot, Timoshenko said. Pukkila said Ukrainians should continue with vaccination against seasonal virus and start pandemic vaccination as soon as the shot is available. Ukraine will register the pandemic vaccine within a month, First Deputy Health Ministry Vasyl Lazoryshynets said. Swine flu was confirmed by Ukrainian laboratories in 65 cases, 14 of which were fatal. In Russia, sales of Tamiflu and other antiviral drugs have jumped, and demand for protective masks has outpaced supply after the country's first swine flu-related deaths, drugstore chains said. "Over the past days of active demand for flu medicines, drugstores are selling out in two hours the amounts that previously took a week to sell," said Andrei Gusev, chief executive officer of Rigla, Russia's No. 2 drugstore chain. Rigla, the retail unit of drug wholesaler Protek, said Tamiflu revenue jumped fourfold between Oct. 24 and Oct. 30. Sales of Arbidol, an antiviral medicine produced in Russia, doubled in the period. Pharmacy Chain 36.6, Russia's largest drugstore chain, said Tamiflu revenue more than doubled in October, compared with the year-earlier period. Arbidol sales rose 40 percent. Russia reported its first swine flu deaths two weeks ago, with the toll rising to 19 people as of Nov. 2, the country's public health watchdog said Friday. More than 3,100 people were infected with swine flu. Supplies of protective masks are dwindling, 36.6 and Protek said. Demand for the masks grew tenfold compared with August, 36.6 said. Meanwhile, a one-week school holiday that began on Nov. 2 was extended until Nov. 15 because of the seasonal flu epidemic, and authorities may decide to keep schools closed even longer if the public-health situation doesn't improve, Deputy Mayor Lyudmila Shvetsova said Friday. In the week to Nov. 1, 166,129 Muscovites fell ill with flu and acute respiratory viral infection, 105,746 of them children, RIA-Novosti said. This was an increase of 57.2 percent from a week earlier and 2.6 times higher than the year-earlier period. (Bloomberg, SPT)
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