You're reading: Ukraine has enough medicines to face flu epidemics, says health minister

Ukraine is ready to face any outbreak of influenza and has enough necessary medicines, Health Minister Zynoviy Mytnyk has said.

"Our country is ready to face any outbreak of influenza, we have necessary medication and they are available," he said at a press conference in Lviv on Friday.

The minister stressed that the Word Health Organization (WHO) has not proclaimed the end of the H1N1 pandemic yet. At the same Mytnyk denied that the batch of Tamiflu, an antiviral drug for treating flu, bought at the end of last year, has already expired.

"The rumors around Tamiflu are rubbish. We bought Tamiflu at pandemic prices and it has a shelf life of 3 to 4 years," said the minister.

According to him, the bills which will allow changing the principles of healthcare funding will be ready by fall. "The new bills will be ready in fall. These are the bill on insurance medicine and the bill on medical institutions.

These bills will help us change principles of funding medicine, which means that the amount of funds will be calculated basing not on the number of beds, but on the number of people," he explained. The minister stressed that they were planning to endorse the changes this year, so that next year’s budget could be calculated in a new way.

In addition, Mytnyk said that they started streamlining the network of medical institutions and their staff.