by Lauren Todd

Created on: November 18, 2009   Last Updated: November 20, 2009

The Ministry of Health in the Ukraine has reported that twenty-six more people have died just last night due to the influenza that causes people to suffocate from complications due to the acute respiratory illness. The symptoms are not at all unlike the symptoms that accompany the Asian virus. The death toll reported by two independent sources, one being an Ukraine newspaper translated to English, has stated that the Ukraine has exceeded epidemic levels in all regions but two. This brings the figure to, two hundred and thirty-nine people total buried from this hemorrhagic disease in all twenty-four regions of the Ukraine.

Though no one knows exactly why or what the cause of this mysterious ailment is, this new strain in the Ukraine is believed to be possibly linked with Baxter Labs, International. Baxter labs confessed in a Bloomberg news report earlier this year that they did indeed "accidentally" send out tainted vaccine from Austria to labs in the Czech Republic, Slovenia and Germany in February.

Fortunately, a subcontractor in the Czech Republic decided to test the new shipment on ferrets upon arrival. The scientists inclination turned out to be correct as the ferrets died immediately after receiving the vaccine. It was only recently, that Baxter revealed that some H3N2 and H5N1 strains of the known virus were mixed, reports say. This deadly combination could have become an incubator for a new disease to spread on a worldwide level. Baxter officials refer to the incident as an unfortunate human error. The companies director of global bioscience communications admitted in an e-mail that the H5N1 strain was live. This could have easily, had dire consequences as a deadly mix like this becomes an incubator for a new form of virus to spread on a massive scale.

Meanwhile, the country is at the beginning stages of Martial Law. Schools are closing for the upcoming weeks, the borders are being blocked off around the quarantine areas and protesters face criminal prosecution for speaking out against the mass inoculation campaign. The United States is reported to send over a million doses of the vaccine in the coming weeks to aid in the countries present crisis. Hospitals are waiting to hear back from the sequence studies done on the virus samples presently being performed by Mill labs in London, England. The studies being done are being performed to replicate conditions under which the virus mutates, as well as to check temperatures at which it is most active. Ukrainian residents are becoming more anxious as the results of the changes in the DNA sequences of the specimens of H5N1 remain forthcoming, while more people are hospitalized daily.

This is heart-breaking news, as many people die from suffocation, as blood fills their lungs, whether the cause is human error or whether it is from some other unknown source. The world and the Ukraine waits, holding its breath, while the events that surround the epidemic continue to unfold.

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