Swine flu panic — and politics — hit Ukraine

President Viktor Yushchenko announced that he was asking the country’s prosecutor to launch an investigation into “criminal negligence” by Tymoshenko, front runner Viktor Yanukovich and former parliament speaker Volodymyr Lytvyn for holding mass rallies to launch their campaigns, just as the pandemic was breaking out.

“The parliament speaker and the leader of the opposition and, most importantly, the prime minister, ignored the facts of the epidemics,” Yushchenko said on national television.

“This is completely similar to the May Day rallies in Kiev after the Chernobyl disaster,” he said, referring to the mass demonstrations held by communist authorities in 1986, just after the world’s worst nuclear accident had taken place.

On Friday, one of Yushchenko’s close advisors suggested that the presidential elections could be delayed until May because of what he said was the Tymoshenko government’s mismanagement of the crisis.

Ihor Popov, deputy head of Yushchenko’s secretariat, wrote on the Ukrainskaya Pravda website that if conditions worsen, a state of emergency could be introduced. That would push back the election date since it would keep candidates from campaigning fully.

WHO officials actually praise the Kiev government’s reaction, however. Pukkila said that although his delegation’s main goal was not to deliver a verdict on the appropriateness of the Ukrainian response — WHO intends simply to assess the nature of the outbreak — he found the official measures “in line with the situation.”

There is a risk nonetheless that the outbreak will become much worse. Though the number of deaths in Ukraine is lower than in other parts of the world, health officials are concerned at the speed at which the illness is spreading, and the possibility that Ukraine may be experiencing a new strain.

More worrisome is the pressure that H1N1 will place on the country’s medical system, beset with corruption, inefficiency and Soviet-era practices. So far authorities in Lviv seem to be able to cope with the added demand, WHO officials say — hospitals have the necessary supplies and there is no shortage of beds.

But Ukraine has the first major H1N1 outbreak in an eastern European country. As it spreads eastward through the former Soviet Union, medical systems in Russia, the Caucasus and Central Asia — not known for their efficiency or high-standards — will come under similar stress.

“How does the virus behave in a country like Ukraine with a health system with low resources, and how does this system cope? This is what we’re watching,” said Pukkila.

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