Aid is arriving in Ukraine from Poland to help combat the flu epidemic after 60 people died in just seven days.
Ukrainian President Viktor Yuschenko personally request assistance from his Polish counterpart, Lech Kaczyński for assistance at the weekend.
Youshchenko also wrote to the US and NATO to help fight the virus which he sees as threatening the nation’s internal security. “The threat weighing on Ukraine's national security which we cannot fight alone forces me to ask our close friends and strategic partners for urgent help,” Ukraine’s president wrote.
Sunday evening, Poland’s Foreign Ministry sent laboratory diagnosis teams from the Military Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology in Pulawy.
Polish laboratories are performing tests on samples to check for the presence of A/H1N1.
Earlier, Mayor of Lviv, Andry Sadovy turned to the authorities of several Polish and Austrian cities for humanitarian aid. The Polish Consulate General in Lviv says the first transport of Polish aid has reached the city. The city of Krakow sent a respirator, 2,000 protective masks, 70 sets of protective clothing, 1000 gloves, 80 pieces of of the drug Tamiflu. Wroclaw has sent 10,000 masks with vaccines and medicines.
Quarantine has been imposed on nine regions of Ukraine since the outbreak of the epidemic.
(pg/ab)
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