Kiev- Ukraine suffered its first death from swine flu, as the government declared a massive quarantine and control effort to head off a possible epidemic, the Interfax news agency reported. The victim was a man living in Ukraine's western Lviv region, said Health Ministry spokesman Roman Pavliv.
The government announcement one week after reports surfaced of as many as 30 deaths potentially caused by swine flu, all in Ukraine's western provinces.
The Health Minister currently was monitoring 22 persons in the region showing swine flu symptoms, of which one had been confirmed as suffering from full-blown swine flu, according to the report.
"Unfortunately, we can state that there is in fact a swine flu epidemic in the country," said Vasyl Kniazhevych, Ukraine's Health Minister, at a Kiev press conference. "We have a lot of work to do."
Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko ordered a massive and for Ukraine unprecedented disease-control programme to go into effect immediately in an attempt to prevent the spread of the disease.
Schools nationwide will close for three weeks, and "all mass gatherings will be forbidden," Tymoshenko said, in comments reported by Channel 5 television.
The bans would come at the height of Ukraine's football season and autumn school semester. They would hinder much political campaigning planned by candidates in the January presidential elections.
A "full quarantine" will be imposed in seven of Ukraine's western provinces, with police monitoring the entrance and exit of all persons, she said. It will block those lacking justification for travel.
Ukraine's National Security Council, headed by President Viktor Yushchenko, was to meet on Friday in emergency session to discuss other anti-swine flu measures, according to a statement on Yushchenko's official website.
Thirty persons - one a child - who suffered from flu-like symptoms have died in Ukraine's western provinces since October 19, but the cause of their deaths "was not necessarily swine flu ... we are still investigating these cases," Kniazevych said.
Twelve of the victims lived in Lviv province, 12 in the Ternopil province and six in the Ivano-Frankisk province, according to Health Ministry data.
Bohdan Oniskiv, a Ternopil region health official, described the dead as almost all "young, physically healthy people."
Beyond the government figures, between four and seven other persons suffering from swine flu-like symptoms died in the last week in Ukraine's Chernovetsky, Rivne, and Ternopil provinces, according to independent Ukrainian media reports.
Assistance to Ukraine from the World Health Organisation and other international assistance agencies could be "critical" in limiting the extent of the swine flu outbreak, but Health Ministry leadership believes "we have sufficient medical supplies to deal with the disease," Kniazevych said.
Until Friday, Ukraine had officially recorded only two cases of swine flu, and no deaths, since the first confirmed infection identified in June. The first sufferer, who has since recovered completely, victim arrived in Ukraine from the US.
