We just sent out our October prayer update but we have one more prayer request. Our youth camp in the Czech Republic is ending this weekend and we will be taking the kids back to Lviv this Sunday. We just learned that there is an unknown flu epidemic in the Lviv region (read the article below) so please pray for safety for everybody. We would consider keeping our students out of Ukraine a little longer (all schools are closed anyways) but their visa expire on Sunday and we could only apply for their visa extension on Monday morning (everything is closed on Saturday and Sunday) and the students do not want to risk having trouble obtaining European Union visa in the future. So they decided they wanted to travel back to Lviv on Sunday despite the epidemic. Tomasz will take them back to Ukraine. Miriam and Hannah will wait in the Czech Republic. We have couple more meetings with the church in the Czech Republic next week so we planned on one more week in Czech even without knowing about the flu. But after that we would really like to go back home to Lviv. Please pray for the whole situation. THANK YOU SO MUCH!!! Tomasz, Miriam and Hannah
Ukraine’s health minister has announced a state of emergency after thirty-three people died from unknown flu virus in western Ukraine, near the Polish border.
Schools have been shut and people have been asked to avoid public places. The Polish-Ukrainian border has not been shut yet but Poland’s Health Minister Ewa Kopacz is considering closing border crossings if the virus turns out to be dangerous for Poles.
Almost one thousand people, mainly from the Ternopil, Ivano-Frankivsk and Lviv Regions, infected with a virus have been hospitalized, including almost 500 children. Hundreds of people have been referred to medical centres and clinics with flu symptoms.
Preliminary tests have shown that eleven, out of thirty-three fatal victims, have died from swine flu.
“Unfortunately, we have to state that an an A/H1N1 flu epidemic has in fact started in Ukraine," said Kniazevych at a press conference. Ukraine’s Health Ministry is planning to impose quarantine in the whole country.
The news has caused a panic in Ukraine. People are buying up anti flu medicines, vaccines and masks. As Ukrainian chemist's' are running out of stock, some Ukrainians are going to Poland to get necessary medications. Ukrainian hospitals, which are being stormed by people, will probably have to ask medicine students for help.
