A second wave of flu is expected in Ukraine late in February, the chief immunologist of Kyiv Center for Clinical Immunology, Oleh Nazar, has said.
"We expect a rise in temperature, which will change weather conditions. We expect a second wave of seasonal and pandemic flu… I think that this wave will come to us late in February," he said at a press conference in Kyiv on Friday.
Nazar said the strain of seasonal flu virus would not differ from the strain that hit Ukraine last autumn.
The assistant professor of the department of infectious diseases and children’s immunology at the Shupyk National Medical Academy of Post-Graduate Education, Fedir Lapiy, said that only five million out of forty-six million people had contracted the flu during the first wave of the illness in Ukraine.
"So those who are in relatively good health and did not get the flu earlier could consider the option of being vaccinated," he said.
"But everybody should understand that vaccination has to be conducted only among healthy people and its first effect will be seen only after two weeks," Lapiy said.
Nazar, in turn, suggested that the A/H1N1 flu vaccine could be registered in Ukraine next week.
"It’s rumored that the A/H1N1 flu vaccine is to be registered next week. Then we’ll select those people who should be vaccinated first of all," he said.
