Flu experts from the World Health Organization say they can't predict what impact the A/H1N1 virus will have. A World Health Organization team of experts has continued its work in Ukraine over the weekend. While four members continued investigations in Lviv – one of the most affected regions in the country – two others travelled 100 km west of the capital, Kyiv, to Zhytomyr: a medium-sized city and a regional (oblast) capital. The health authorities there have invested resources in preparing for the pandemic in line with the central Government’s guidelines. The two team members went to the area, along with WHO’s representative in Ukraine, to see how a typical region prioritizes action to prevent an outbreak of pandemic (H1N1) 2009 influenza.

A total of 1.3 million people live in the wider Zhytomyr oblast, explained the head of the oblast health administration to the WHO team. As of 7 November 2009, nearly 20 000 people had reported acute respiratory illness (ARI) in the previous 8 days. The region confirmed an ARI epidemic 2 days ago, with the numbers breaching a defined threshold (set using the weekly ARI incidence for the past 10 years).

There are 747 hospital beds earmarked for infectious patients (406 are designated for children) and a contingency plan is in place to allocate an extra 1415 beds at extremely short notice. The emergency response plan also includes the transformation of one hospital into a dedicated treatment and care unit for pandemic (H1N1) 2009 influenza.

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