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03. 11. 09. - 13:00

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03. 11. 09. - 13:00

Austria to ship almost half a million masks to Ukraine

By Lisa Chapman

Austria is to ship almost half a million surgical masks to the Ukraine to help the Eastern European state battle swine flu.

Social Democratic (SPÖ) Health Minister Alois Stöger said this morning (Tues) 464,840 surgical masks would be sent in response to the Ukrainian government’s appeal for international help in combating the disease.

He added 150,000 pairs of protective gloves and 3,000 bottles of disinfectant would also be sent.

Meanwhile Stöger has appealed for public calm following the first death from swine flu in Austria yesterday.

He said Austria was well prepared for swine flu.

The call came after an 11-year-old girl from South Tyrol, Italy, who had spent 10 days in intensive care at an Innsbruck hospital, died yesterday.

Christoph Wenisch, a specialist on infections at Vienna’s Kaiser Franz-Josef Hospital, told Austrian broadcaster ORF after speaking with colleagues in Innsbruck that the girl's immune system had run "out of control" after she had had a bacterial infection and then been infected by the swine flu virus A/H1N1.

He said: "Her immune system was tackling both infections and the fight against one was working against the fight against the other."

The girl's condition had "clearly worsened" yesterday after her lungs had stopped functioning and she was put on a heart-lung machine to supply her with necessary oxygen. Doctors confirmed she had died overnight.

She had been at Innsbruck Children’s Clinic since 23 October.

Meanwhile doctors say they are cautiously optimistic about two other seriously-ill swine flu patients.

Doctors at Hanusch Hospital in Vienna where an 18-year-old pregnant woman has been in intensive care since last Thursday said her breathing was now better and her situation, although still critical, had stabilised.

A spokeswoman for Salzburg provincial clinic said a 41-year-old German man who was hospitalised there last Wednesday with swine flu and a serious bacterial lung infection was "better" although still in an artificial coma. He had been responding well to antibiotics for combating multi-organ sepsis, she added.

Swine flu also caused the closure of a school last week. East Tyrol authorities closed a school in Lienz for a week on Wednesday last week after 26 students were struck down with suspected swine flu.

Meanwhile, Austria’s 280,000 health-care personnel began to receive vaccinations against swine flu on Tuesday last week.

The vaccination of the 600,000 people at high risk – pregnant women and the chronically-ill – is set to begin on 9 November.

Health authorities say they have enough vaccine for 800,000 to be vaccinated by the end of November."

The ministry has received 520,000 doses of pharmaceutical firm Baxter’s "Celvapan" swine flu vaccine and will receive additional doses at the rate of 200,000 a week.

Health-insurance funds will cover the cost of the vaccinations except for a fee of 4.90 Euros a dose. Doctors recommend that people receive two doses of the vaccine three weeks apart.

Austrian Times

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