Is Uzbekistan holding back information ?
This article raises disturbing questions http://uznews.net/news_single.php?ln...id=8&nid=12237
02.12.09 20:56
Uzbekistan to offer swine flu vaccines in 2010
Uznews.net ? Uzbekistan has now recorded over 130 swine flu deaths but it still lacks a vaccine and advises patients to treat the disease in non-traditional ways.
Uzbek health officials have indirectly confirmed swine flu cases in the country by announcing that vaccinations will be given to target groups in January 2010. However, they did not publicise the precise figures of swine flu cases and deaths because of secrecy surrounding them.
Chief Sanitary Doctor and Deputy Health Minister Bahtiyor Niyazmatov told a news conference that the number of flu cases was 30-35% more this autumn than last year?s figure. He explained that this was due to better qualifications of medical personnel and better awareness of the population.
He urged people to vaccinate against seasonal flu and said that a swine flu vaccine would be available in the country from 10 January. He reassured that the country had built up special stocks of Tamiflu which was sufficient for 33,000 patients, or 0.12% of the population. It is no surprise that this preparation is not on open sale.
State-run medical establishments offer $10 Influvac vaccines to the population, when the average salary is $100 per month, whereas social mechanisms for needy families and families with many children have not been devised.
Meanwhile, the country?s infectious diseases hospitals have been flooded by patients. ?At the latest meeting we were told that there had already been recorded 130 deaths from flue of an unknown aetiology but we were warned against publicising this figure,? a Tashkent-based doctor said on condition of anonymity.
There are no real figures about flu because doctors diagnose patients with pneumonia or meningitis, not flu, he suggested.
Despite this, education establishments have not been closed down for quarantine because officials do not want to officially admit that there is a flu epidemic in the country, another Tashkent-based doctor said.
Teachers said that they had been banned from using the word ?flu? and had been advised to say ?cold? or ?respiratory diseases? instead, a teacher said.
At the same time, USAID and the Uzbek Health Ministry have held a seminar for doctors to train them to quickly react to cases of bird flu, which spread in many countries last year, even though Uzbekistan did not record a single case and this type of flu does not transfer from human to human, unlike seasonal or swine flu. That is why the efficiency and topicality of this seminar raise many questions.
In an interview with the UzA national news agency, the director of the Uzbek Health Ministry?s Institute for Viral Studies, Erkin Musaboyev, suggested burning dry Syrian rue (Peganum harmala) on the premises as an anti-flu measure, even though this plant is not known for its anti-flu medicinal qualities elsewhere.
This article raises disturbing questions http://uznews.net/news_single.php?ln...id=8&nid=12237
02.12.09 20:56
Uzbekistan to offer swine flu vaccines in 2010
Uznews.net ? Uzbekistan has now recorded over 130 swine flu deaths but it still lacks a vaccine and advises patients to treat the disease in non-traditional ways.
Uzbek health officials have indirectly confirmed swine flu cases in the country by announcing that vaccinations will be given to target groups in January 2010. However, they did not publicise the precise figures of swine flu cases and deaths because of secrecy surrounding them.
Chief Sanitary Doctor and Deputy Health Minister Bahtiyor Niyazmatov told a news conference that the number of flu cases was 30-35% more this autumn than last year?s figure. He explained that this was due to better qualifications of medical personnel and better awareness of the population.
He urged people to vaccinate against seasonal flu and said that a swine flu vaccine would be available in the country from 10 January. He reassured that the country had built up special stocks of Tamiflu which was sufficient for 33,000 patients, or 0.12% of the population. It is no surprise that this preparation is not on open sale.
State-run medical establishments offer $10 Influvac vaccines to the population, when the average salary is $100 per month, whereas social mechanisms for needy families and families with many children have not been devised.
Meanwhile, the country?s infectious diseases hospitals have been flooded by patients. ?At the latest meeting we were told that there had already been recorded 130 deaths from flue of an unknown aetiology but we were warned against publicising this figure,? a Tashkent-based doctor said on condition of anonymity.
There are no real figures about flu because doctors diagnose patients with pneumonia or meningitis, not flu, he suggested.
Despite this, education establishments have not been closed down for quarantine because officials do not want to officially admit that there is a flu epidemic in the country, another Tashkent-based doctor said.
Teachers said that they had been banned from using the word ?flu? and had been advised to say ?cold? or ?respiratory diseases? instead, a teacher said.
At the same time, USAID and the Uzbek Health Ministry have held a seminar for doctors to train them to quickly react to cases of bird flu, which spread in many countries last year, even though Uzbekistan did not record a single case and this type of flu does not transfer from human to human, unlike seasonal or swine flu. That is why the efficiency and topicality of this seminar raise many questions.
In an interview with the UzA national news agency, the director of the Uzbek Health Ministry?s Institute for Viral Studies, Erkin Musaboyev, suggested burning dry Syrian rue (Peganum harmala) on the premises as an anti-flu measure, even though this plant is not known for its anti-flu medicinal qualities elsewhere.
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