Public life is starting to get back to some sort of normality again in Ukraine after the country's health ministry announced it was lifting the flu quarantine which has kept schools and universities closed for three weeks and many people indoors. But with almost 400 people dead from influenza and a second wave expected, a local journalist has told Radio Netherlands Worldwide that the move may be premature.

By Louise Dunne and Tim Fisher
 
The recent flu epidemic triggered nationwide panic in Ukraine - with streets deserted, public events being cancelled and supplies of facemasks and any type of cold remedy selling out. Katryna Gruschenko of the Kiev Post newspaper was out of the country and returned the day after the epidemic was declared on 30 October. "I didn't understand what was going on," she says, "The streets were deserted, at the airport everybody was looking kind of very stressed and uncomfortable."

Listen to a Newsline interview with Katryna Gruschenko:

 
Back to normal
The panic intensified when the quarantine was imposed, with the health authorities unclear about the exact nature of the epidemic: was it swine flu caused by the A(H1N1) virus, a seasonal influenza or a 'superflu' mutation? Now they're saying it's seasonal influenza mixed with some cases of swine flu and that it's safe to lift the quarantine. People are immediately starting to feel more comfortable, according to Ms Gruschenko, abandoning their facemasks and getting back to normal life. But she has her doubts about the wisdom of this.
 
"The epidemic hasn't stopped, it's just we know more about it now, it's going to keep progressing, we're even expecting a second wave; but because people were so scared and now they're so relieved they've just basically stopped worrying and stopped taking care of themselves."
 
Epidemic exploits
With presidential elections due in January, Ukraine's politicians haven't been slow to exploit the epidemic. Prime Minster Yulia Tymoshenko and presidential candidate Viktor Yanukovich have been vying to outdo each other in expressions of concern and accusing their political foes of inaction.
 
Ms Gruschenko says the immediate response from leading politicians suggested they would individually save the country from this epidemic. She adds that politicians have in fact taken every flu-related opportunity to promote themselves, citing the example of Prime Minister Tymoshenko's much publicised 'personal welcome' of a plane laden with some 200,000 packs of the virus-inhibiting Tamiflu medication when it arrived from Switzerland in the city of Lviv. "Everyone is a 'nation saver'... Basically they have been trying to take credit for everything they are supposed to do normally", said Ms Gruschenko.
 
It seems, however, that the people of Ukraine are not necessarily being taken in by this posturing. Trust in the country's politicians was, according to the journalist, not particularly great to begin with, and this epidemic has left many wondering why those politicians who are now claiming the credit did not act sooner.
 
"Not going to happen to us"
But it's not only politicians, this crisis has also exposed what appears to have been a degree of overconfidence on the part of Ukraine's medical experts which may well be described as having bordered on arrogance. Ms Gruschenko describes how, just a month before the epidemic got underway, the typical reaction from the medical elite was "it's not going to happen to us, and if it does, well, we are fully prepared." A month later their confidence had turned to panic, and she feels it was the unfounded confidence on the part of both the medical and political elites that got the country into trouble in the first place.
 
UFOs and superflu
Earlier this month reports emerged from Ukraine about the panic over flu verging on total hysteria as rumours spread that the epidemic actually involved some kind of newly-mutated "superflu" that had either evolved naturally or was manmade and released among the population deliberately or accidentally.
 
Katryna Gruschenko blames the local press for bogus reporting and has her doubts about whether the rumours took as strong a hold among the general population as the international media have suggested: "Some people believe in UFOs... some people believe in all kinds of things... (but) most of the people on the streets, I don't think really believe this."
 
Photo: A young couple with face masks in front of frescos at Kiev's Mikhaylovskiy cathedral (EPA)