Number of victims to unknown virus growing! State of emergency to be imposed in Ukraine?, page 7

Originally posted by Funked
Anyone have any more links about this? Nothing on CNN, MSNBC, Rueters, or Fox.

Well, to be fair, the local media here in Prague are only just latching on to this story now -- and we are not exactly light years from Ukraine.

According to a report in Lidove Noviny (People's News) here, while the Polish border is now going to be subject to some controls, the Czech government is not taking any action for now beyond waiting for advice from the EU health authorities and the WHO. In other words, they're aware of the problem but will not do anything to check people coming into this country from the Ukraine:

Cesko je podle mluvciho ministerstva zdravotnictvi Vlastimila Srsne o situaci a o vysledcich testu informovano standardnimi informacnimi kanaly Evropske unie, Svetove zdravotnicke organizace (WHO) i Ukrajiny.

"Na zaklade dostupnych informaci Cesko prozatim neplanuje zadna preventivni opatreni v oblasti cestovani, ani vuci obcanum Ukrajiny na uzemi CR," rekl mluvci ministerstva zdravotnictvi Vlastimil Srsen.

(Quoted without the accents on the various letters as they would look weird if you don't have the fonts loaded.)

Translation:

According to Vlastimil Srsen, spokesperson for the Ministry of Health, the Czech Republic is being informed about the situation and the results of tests via the standard information channels of the European Union, the WHO and the Ukraine.

"On the basis of available information, the Czech Republic is not for now planning any preventative measures in the area of travel, not even in respect of Ukrainian citizens," said the spokesperson for the Ministry of Health, Vlastimil Srsen.

For anyone who reads Czech or a related language and who'd like the whole article, you can find it here.

I should point out that Lidove Noviny is one of our more "serious" newspapers. It's not a tabloid in other words.

The above article also confirms that this new infection produces symptoms "similar to flu" (meaning that it's not yet known if it is a form of flu itself). It also confirms that the Ukraine parliament will close schools, restrict public gatherings and even visits to cinemas.

I am dismayed (to put it mildly) that in light of all this, and also the fact that we have thousands of Ukrainian workers here (legally and otherwise), the Czech govt has seen fit to basically take a wait-and-see attitude.

I only hope that this will turn out to be something that can be identified. treated and controlled quickly. With the way the borders are so open in Europe now, this infection could have already been unknowingly spread throughout a region with a population in the many hundreds of millions -- and that's just in greater Europe.

This concerns me far more than the "swine flu", which here has caused one confirmed death and possibly another, and where even the number of infections are quite low.