Something is happening in the Ukraine

What it is we're not exactly sure. People are dying in unexpected numbers from an ailment that is similar to, but not, the swine flu. It spreads fast, is highly infectious, and has shut down the country. Ukraine has asked for aid from six nations, the World Health Organization, and its own military. Rumors of pneumonic flu have been surfacing. But let's start at the beginning. Left, Afghan Health Minister Said Mohammad Amin Fatami speaks at a press conference on November 2 about swine flu. He is surrounded by doctors dressed in full protective suits from a Kabul lab designed to diagnose the H1N1 virus.

On Saturday I sent an e-mail to my subscribers (subscribe here) alerting them to the fact that something was happening in the Ukraine. We here in the West first started hearing late last week that "Ukraine had closed schools and banned public meetings including election rallies and restricted travel for a three-week period after confirming its first death from H1N1 flu. Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko announced the measures, saying the virus had reached epidemic levels in three parts of western Ukraine, where there has been an outbreak of respiratory illness since mid-October."

However, the situation rapidly spun out of control as rumors of the illness being the pneumonic flu surfaced on Saturday. Pneumonic flu is serious. You've heard of the bubonic plague in legend and history? People dying in the streets, infection running rampant? Pneumonic flu is worse. Both Pneumonic and Bubonic plagues have the Yersinia pestis at its root, but with bubonic plague the bacteria is introduced in the bloodstream, usually through a flea or rat bite. In Pneumonic, the bacteria is introduced through inhaling air contaminated with it. This makes it extremely passable from human to human.

Pneumonic plague symptoms mimic the flu with fever, overall bodily aches and pains, and also headaches. Then, pneumonia sets in and the patient may begin coughing up blood. Death is imminent, unless antibiotic treatment is offered within about 24 hours of suspected infection. However, since swine flu AND regular flu are making their course around the world, including the Ukraine, and symptoms of the flus are similar, distinguishing Pneumonic Plague within the life-saving time-period is extremely reduced.

The Mayo Clinic's symptom list for Pneumonic plague includes:
Pneumonic plague — which can occur as a complication of another type of plague or by inhaling infectious droplets coughed into the air by a person or animal — is the least common form of plague. But it's also the most rapidly fatal. Early signs and symptoms, which generally occur within a few hours to a few days after inhaling contaminated droplets, include:

* High fever
* Weakness
* Signs of pneumonia, including chest pain, difficulty breathing and a cough with bloody sputum
* Nausea and vomiting

Pneumonic plague progresses rapidly and may cause respiratory failure and shock within two days of infection. If antibiotic treatment isn't initiated within a day after signs and symptoms first appear, the infection is likely to be fatal.

On Saturday the nation confirmed 39 flu deaths. They instituted social distancing methods such as cancellation of sports events and closing schools. By Sunday the Ukraine suspended its draft, and has requested help from outside the country. On Monday help had arrived. The death toll had risen to 67, according to an Agence France-Presse (AFP) report. Deputy Health Minister Vasyl Lazorysynets said the country has had 255,000 cases of flu and respiratory illness, with 15,000 people hospitalized, AFP reported. By Tuesday, Romania had quarantined its hospitals on their border with Ukraine and Poland requested a meeting of the EU to address the situation. "Poland has asked the Swedish EU presidency to call an emergency session of EU health ministers to discuss help for Ukraine amid an explosive outbreak of flu."

Explosive.

Ukraine President Viktor Yushchenko said experts fear the simultaneous existence of three types of flu viruses within the country "may lead to the emergence of an even more aggressive new virus." And Afghanistan got into the swell of panic, as "Swine Flu Fears Spread From Ukraine To Afghanistan".

Solid facts have been hard to come by as to how many are sick and where they are, because of the media blackout. The Ukrainian Health Ministry said yesterday that the number of flu patients in the country has risen to 450,000, although it has not been determined how many of those people are suffering from swine flu. Only two days prior, the ministry had said some 255,000 Ukrainians had registered with public health authorities as suffering from the flu, among them 83,000 children. And the initial rumors of pneumonic plague were quickly squashed though the deaths clearly are from an 'acute respiratory infection' (ARI) with autopsies showing blood soaked lungs.

WHO said: "Work will initially begin in Lviv region, where reported numbers of cases showing severe manifestations of acute respiratory illness have been especially high. Two virologists on the team have started working at the National Influenza Centre and the laboratories of the Central Sanitary and Epidemiological Station in Kyiv to provide diagnostic support."

"The above comments from the WHO update on Ukraine strike a more serious tone than yesterday's quotes from WHO spokespersons playing down the alarming number of hospitalized and fatal cases, as well as media reports spinning political considerations, or politicians claiming only 15 confirmed H1N1 cases.. The more severe manifestation of cases are clearly hemorrhagic disease that fills lungs with blood and produces bleeding at all orifices, which are stark reminders of 1918 pandemic cases which were also linked to a swine H1N1. Samples have arrived at Mill Hill in London, and sequence data should be available shortly," write Gordon Wagner.

"Hemorrhagic pneumonia was also observed in the 1918 pandemic and was thought to be linked to cytokine storm. Consequently, those with robust immune systems (previously health young adults) disproportionately died, which has also been seen in the current outbreak (Mexico, US, and worldwide). However, the cases in Ukraine appear to be clustered, raising concerns that the virus has changed." A mutation toward the same or similar flu as the 1918 Spanish influenza would be disaster, in these days of rapid, global travel.

So that's all we know. Or don't know. There have been deaths and a rapid spread of some kind of disease that is highly fatal. It may be swine flu or it may not, or it may be a deadly swine flu mutation or it may cease without warning as fast as it began. Until lab tests are returned and until the government releases data from same, then all we can do is watch, and pray.

When Jesus answered the disciples' query "when shall these things be and what shall be the sign?" [of the end of the age]  (Matthew 24:4-28) Jesus noted in His discourse that "there will be pestilences." However, that answer was aimed at the events suffered by the world during the Tribulation. We are not in the tribulation now. But He also said that there would be a preamble, that as a woman gets ready to give birth, it all would start with pangs. The world is experiencing the initial pangs and also the emotions surrounding the end of a gestation period, hope, joy, fear, uncertainty, panic. As Jesus methodically takes away our underpinnings and inexorably reveals our ineptitude and selfishness in the face of ever-increasing calamitous events, these emotions will continue and heighten. Pray for our deliverance from the world, and pray for the lost! Can you hear His footsteps?