Uzbekistan: Government Slow to Grapple with Swine Flu Cases -- Opposition

More than 130 people in Uzbekistan have died from swine flu, an opposition website is claiming.

The Ministry of Health has announced it will start vaccinating people against the infection in January. Meanwhile, doctors and teachers are under orders to hush up the deaths, according to a December 1 report distributed by the opposition website Uznews.net.

Schools and kindergartens are not permitted to close even though hundreds of schools across neighboring Kyrgyzstan have shut in an attempt to stem infection rates.

"Quarantine for such institutions would be the most effective measure against the epidemic. However, for health officials in Uzbekistan, recognition of the flu epidemic is tantamount to accepting they are helpless," a Tashkent-based epidemiologist was quoted by Uznews.net as saying.

A school teacher added, "At the last teachers' [meeting], we were categorically forbidden to even to utter the word 'epidemic' in school. It was recommended we replace the word 'flu' with 'cold.'"