From the Just Over the Hill Dept.: Could the part of the world that gave us Dracula and Frankenstein be incubating some tiny monsters?
Way too early to panic, but this just in from Eastern Europe:
A cocktail of three flu viruses are reported to have mutated into a single pneumonic plague, which it is believed may be far more dangerous than swine flu. The death toll has reached 189 and more than 1 million people have been infected, most of them in the nine regions of Western Ukraine.
Russia, Slovakia, Poland, Hungary and Romania, countries that border Ukraine, have already launched health checks on Ukrainians entering their territory, while neighbouring Poland has called on the EU to take action, fearing the mystery virus may spread westwards.
Have you washed your hands lately?
Stay tuned.
UPDATE: The World Health Organization has been investigating the outbreak in Ukraine, and it said today in a statement that the virus "is similar" to H1N1. Again, stay tuned.
