Moscow,August 03: Russian health authorities have confirmed 55 cases of swine flu even as the country’s clinics are reportedly full of suspected cases of the A/H1N1 virus.
“We have confirmed 55 cases, although there are some suspected cases, so this number is rising,” Russia’s chief sanitary inspector Gennady Onishchenko was quoted as saying by news agency RIA Novosti.
Onishchenko asked the Russian people to refrain from visiting foreign lands as those who were diagnosed with swine flu had returned from vacations or business trips abroad, mainly from Britain, Spain and also from Turkey, Bulgaria.
Onishchenko however claimed that so far no deaths have been reported from A/H1N1 virus.
Moscow’s main quarantine clinic is overcrowded with suspected cases of swine flu, after a London-based Russian businesswoman who tested positive for the virus admitted herself on learning how local doctors fully cured the disease, Russian website newsru.com reported.
Swine flu cases have been registered in Moscow and central Russia in the Volga region, the Urals, Siberia and recently Sakhalin island which is in the far east.
First batch of vaccine against A/H1N1 virus is expected to be ready in Russia by October 1 and by the year-end 16 million doses are to be produced in the country.
–Agencies