Ukraine’s acting health minister, Ulana Suprun, held a press conference in Kyiv on Jan. 15 where she attempted to reassure the public that there’s no national flu epidemic and health officials have the situation under control.
She also said, however, that epidemic thresholds for acute respiratory viral infections, ARVIs, and influenza had been surpassed in two regions: Kyiv and Zhytomyr.
Only 155,000 people in Ukraine have been vaccinated against influenza, according to Suprun.
She warned Ukrainian citizens to get vaccinated in order to avoid a repeat of the epidemic levels seen in previous years.
The worst flu season in recent time, from late 2015 to the end of February 2016, saw 313 confirmed flu deaths, according to Ukraine’s health ministry, as a deadly epidemic swept across the country.
“There are enough vaccines in drugstores. We encourage people to get vaccinated,” said Suprun, as reported by Ukrinform.
The Jan. 15 press conference in the Ukrainian capital took place as senior health officials sought to calm citizens after a growing number of flu-related deaths, covered extensively in the media, began to cause nationwide concern.
On Jan. 4, and throughout the following days, other health ministry officials and the ministry’s press service told reporters that epidemic thresholds had been surpassed in five regions: Khmelnytsky, Zhytomyr, Kyiv, Sumy and Odesa.
At least 19 people are confirmed to have died throughout Ukraine since the beginning of the current flu season, from October 2018, according health ministry sources cited by Obozrevatel.
Although the number of confirmed deaths from flu in this season remains comparatively low, so far, health officials remain concerned.
Professor Alla Mironenko, an epidemic and infectious disease specialist, warned reporters that the number of flu and ARVI patients could increase sharply from the second half of January as children and young people return to their studies.
“The peak of the epidemic is expected by the end of this month and in February,” Mironenko said, according to a report by Ukraine’s Channel 5 news.
For now, however, senior health officials remain calm.
“There is no flu epidemic in Ukraine – we have a 13 percent lower sickness rate than the epidemic threshold, so there is no epidemic at the state level. There are only two regions with an influenza epidemic…” Suprun said.
