The epidemic of acute respiratory infections in Western Ukraine claimed the lives of 37 people

Yesterday in the Lviv region, due to an epidemic of influenza and acute respiratory diseases, all higher education institutions, schools and kindergartens were quarantined. Previously, quarantine for the same reasons was announced in the Ivano-Frankivsk and Ternopil regions. The main feature of the disease is damage to the lungs, as a result of which people die from pneumonia. Now doctors are trying to identify the causative agent of this disease, from which 37 people died as of yesterday. The number of patients is in the tens of thousands.

The Sanitary and Epidemiological Service of the Lviv Region yesterday appealed to residents not to go to crowded places without a special respirator mask. The reason for this was an epidemic of influenza and acute respiratory diseases, due to which all higher education institutions, schools and kindergartens in the region were quarantined. According to the Ministry of Health, as of yesterday evening, 12 people had died from the epidemic in the Lviv region. According to the deputy head of the main health department of the Lviv regional state administration, Irina Mikitchak, they died of pneumonia. In total, over 9 thousand people are currently sick with colds in the region.

As the chief physician of the Lvov emergency hospital, Miron Borisevich, told Kommersant, five deaths were registered in the city. “All those admitted to the hospital experienced the same symptoms of the development of the disease: a very high temperature, a cough that does not allow one to breathe normally. At the same time, the disease progresses unusually quickly. Now all tests have been sent for examination to Kyiv,” Mr. Borisevich explained to Kommersant.

Residents of Lvov reacted quickly to the announced quarantine - many of them yesterday purchased medicines for colds and flu for future use. In addition, pharmacies have run out of rubber gloves and protective masks. “People buy up all the medicines, sometimes several packs at a time, without even knowing whether they need it,” Nelya Byk, head of the Lvov Pharmacy Association, told Kommersant. Yesterday, the mayor of the city, Andrei Sadovy, tried to reassure the townspeople. He said that all medical institutions in Lvov are working in enhanced mode. “The number of ambulances responding to calls has been doubled. Every sick person will be provided with medical care. The situation in the city is completely under control,” the mayor of Lvov assured Kommersant.

The situation is no less difficult in the Drohobych district of the region, where five people also died. As the head of the health department of the Drohobych City Council, Andrei Shekenich, told Kommersant, unlike in Lvov, the disease progressed differently among residents of the region: “The child was admitted to the hospital and died after just eight hours. One adult died a day later, the other two days later, and two more patients died on the fourth day.” According to Mr. Shekenich, the first symptoms of the disease - high fever, muscle aches and headache - could appear in patients only on the 15th day after the actual onset of the disease.

In addition to the Lviv region, quarantine was previously announced in educational institutions in the Ivano-Frankivsk and Ternopil regions. According to the Ministry of Health, in the Ivano-Frankivsk region there are about 1.5 thousand patients with influenza and acute respiratory diseases, six have already died. Yesterday in Ivano-Frankivsk the number of passers-by on the street and passengers on public transport sharply decreased. Citizens, just like in Lviv, buy medicines in large quantities and try to visit crowded places as little as possible.

According to the chief physician of the Ivano-Frankivsk Regional Infectious Diseases Hospital, Roman Ostyak, patients with a fatal outcome had similar symptoms: it all started with a slight increase in temperature - up to 37.2-37.3 ° C - and a slight cough. On the second and third days, a slight runny nose appeared, and on the third to fifth days, severe shortness of breath, after which the patients found it difficult to breathe. “When they were transferred to an artificial respiration apparatus, it was almost impossible for them to ventilate their lungs,” Mr. Ostyak told Kommersant, noting that death occurred as a result of pulmonary edema.

So far, doctors do not have a consensus on what is the causative agent of the disease. The chief sanitary doctor of the Ternopil region, Stepan Dnistryan, believes that the cause of death is unknown viruses.

As the deputy chief sanitary doctor of the region, Ninel Tsyapa, explained, all the dead sought help from doctors on the fifth or sixth day after the onset of the disease, when it was already too late to provide it. “This strain of influenza is characterized by damage to the lungs. From a high temperature, a person practically 'burns out',” noted Ms. Tsyapa. According to her, the virology laboratory of the regional sanitary and epidemiological station is trying to identify the causative agent of the disease, but in the meantime doctors are using antiviral drugs.

According to the Ministry of Health, the largest number of cases was registered in the Ternopil region - 27.3 thousand people. At the same time, 12 people have already died there. Three more people each died in Chernivtsi and Rivne region, and one in Transcarpathia. There is no epidemic in the Transcarpathian, Rivne and Chernivtsi regions yet, but the head of the health department of the Chernivtsi regional state administration, Igor Shkrobanets, insists that a quarantine be declared in the region as soon as possible. “Since the course of the disease is very complex, and the type of virus has not been established, we cannot wait for an epidemic to occur,” he says.

Deputy head of the main department of health and medical support of the Kyiv city state administration, Vladimir Zagorodny, said on Wednesday that there is no threat of an epidemic in Kyiv. Last week, the epidemiological threshold was just over 27 thousand people, while 17.6 thousand people fell ill with influenza and ARVI. “That is, we fell short of the epidemiological threshold by almost 35%,” noted Mr. Zagorodny. Meanwhile, yesterday Kommersant discovered that at least two pharmacies located in the Pechersky district had sold out all the masks.

Explaining the emergence of the epidemic specifically in the western regions of the country, the head of the Association of Infectious Diseases of Ukraine, Mikhail Andreychik, suggested that it could have arisen due to temperature changes. “This is an epidemic of an acute viral infection from the group of respiratory tract infections. A study of patient materials is underway. The clinic is very close to the diagnosis of influenza. But the final answer will be received in a day, when the laboratory can recognize the pathogen,” Mr. Andreychik told Kommersant. As Minister of Health Vasily Knyazevich said yesterday during a government meeting, by next week “the specific nature of the virus will be established”: either it is a traditional flu or the “California” A/H1N1, better known as swine flu. “Both our laboratories and international ones, including European and Russian ones, are working,” he clarified.

Mr. Knyazevich also said that the Ministry of Health has created an operational headquarters to monitor the epidemiological situation, and a professional commission consisting of scientists from the National Academy of Sciences and the Academy of Medical Sciences has traveled to the Ternopil region to determine the causes that led to deaths.

In addition, the Ministry of Health yesterday recommended that citizens focus on preventive measures - in particular, eat well, including vitamins, harden yourself, regularly ventilate rooms, wash your hands with soap, use alternative medicine, restoratives and homeopathic medicines.

Vitaly Kommersant-Popovich, Ternopil; Veronica Kommersant-Savchenko, Lviv; Bogdan Kommersant-Skavron, Ivano-Frankivsk; Denis Kommersant-Popovich

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