AH1N1 Virus Pandemic Prompts Romanian National Defense Council Meeting

Former health minister Eugen Nicolaescu told a press conference on October 30 that the CSAT needs to convene and analyze the AH1N1 virus situation.

Recently, the Ministry of Health said it intends to purchase, with urgency, one million doses of epidemic vaccine for intervention in the cities Iasi and Bucharest. The doses will be used to render children in schools immune. The ministry later said it discarded plans to buy the vaccine, because it would reach Romania in the first quarter of 2010, and local authorities need them right now, until local vaccine batches are available.

Romania's Health Ministry state secretary Adrian Streinu-Cercel, who resigned his position Tuesday, said Romania should be prepared for 3,300 to 6,000 fatalities because of the AH1N1 flu.

Romania has so far registered 581 cases of infection with the AH1N1 virus but most patients had mild forms and no one died from the illness.Worldwide, 18 deaths from the swine flu have been reported over the past 24 hours, taking the global death toll to 6,171.

Romania has put all its hospitals under quarantine to help prevent the spread of the virus and will start a vaccination campaign using a locally-made vaccine later this month.

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