You're reading: Ukraine in panic over swine flu; WHO team visits

Ukraine is in a panic about swine flu, with officials closing schools, imposing travel restrictions and limiting public gatherings. Yet many suspect that politics, not health issues, are behind the uproar.

The World Health Organization said Monday there is no evidence that Ukraine’s outbreak is particularly severe, leading some political analysts to say Ukraine’s politicians are using the swine flu scare to earn political points ahead of the country’s presidential election in January.

"Right now all the candidates are weighing their political options, looking around for a theme, and this is a very hot topic right now. The panic is there, and they are acting on it," said Konstantin Bondarenko, director of the Gorshenin Institute, a political think tank.

On Monday, Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko dramatically met a Swiss shipment of anti-viral drugs at the Kiev airport. Last week, her main rival, President Viktor Yushchenko, said 48 people had died of flu and thousands were infected.

The health minister, Vasyl Knyazevich, warned on Friday that nationwide quarantines could be imposed as the virus is spreading "extremely fast."

On Monday, his ministry said 67 people have died of flu, but it did not specify how many of deaths were related to swine flu. In any case, that is a tiny number in a country like Ukraine, which has a population of 40 million.

Worldwide, outbreaks of the regular seasonal flu claim 50,000 lives each year.

At the government’s request, the World Health Organization has sent a team to help Ukraine deal with the outbreak.

"But this is not an indication that the situation is severe," said WHO spokeswoman Liuba Negru. "The information we have gotten (from the government), we have to double-check it and make sure it is real evidence-based information."

Bondarenko said Tymoshenko has the most to lose from public sentiment over the outbreak, as state health officials answer to her.

"This is the supply that will reliably protect Ukraine," Tymoshenko said of the shipment of 650,000 doses of Tamiflu, ITAR-Tass news agency reported. Her government plans to increase its hoard of the drug with another 300,000 doses, she added.

The January election is a pivotal vote which could overturn the 2004 Orange Revolution that swept a pro-Western government to power.

Viktor Yanukovych, the Regions’ Party candidate for the presidency, has not yet commented on the swine flu uproar. Yanukovych, who was beaten in 2005 by Yushchenko, is leading in the polls with a platform that emphasizes closer ties with Russia.

During the past five years of Yushchenko’s presidency, relations with Moscow reached historic lows. Yushchenko’s ratings have fallen to single digits in the wake of the economic crisis, which hit Ukraine hard, and years of political gridlock with Tymoshenko.