KIEV - A major health emergency or a case of acute electionitis ahead of polls? Ukraine's squabbling politicians are rushing to combat a flu epidemic amid suspicions they may have ulterior motives.
The country, which borders four European Union (EU) members, last week announced some of the toughest measures of any European state to combat what the authorities described as a major epidemic of swine flu in the west of the country.
Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko announced that schools would be closed for the next three weeks and oversaw a nighttime delivery of anti-flu drugs amid mounting panic in the population.
While 71 people died as a result of flu and acute respiratory infections, according to the latest health ministry figures, in only one of the fatal cases has a diagnosis of the A(H1N1) virus been confirmed.
Strangely, the panic was triggered when the health ministry announced that dozens of people had died of a mysterious respiratory infection in the west of Ukraine in October whose nature has never been specified.
The whole saga comes ahead of January 17 presidential polls where Tymoshenko is to face off with her old pro-Moscow rival Viktor Yanukovich and her one time ally President Viktor Yushchenko in what promises to be a bitter struggle.
Ukraine's politicians "are trying to exploit the situation for the aims of the election campaign", said Volodymyr Fesenko, director of the Penta political research centre.
"They are starting to use the half-panicked mood of part of the population and play on fears and phobias.
"They are trying to take advantage of the situation, to strengthen their position and try to weaken the position of their competitors."
The mood is already febrile with the campaign kicking off last month with a bout of mutual mudslinging as the Tymoshenko and Yanukovich camps exchanged allegations of sexual crimes.
Tymoshenko, who must reel in a 10 percent opinion poll deficit if she is to defeat frontrunner Yanukovich, has portrayed herself as the saviour of the nation in the fight against the virus.
Living up to her reputation as a tireless campaigner, she personally went to the airport in the middle of the night to oversee the arrival of a 16-ton consignment of Tamiflu from Switzerland.
Staring gravely into the cameras, she also gave a televised address urging Ukrainians to wear anti-flu masks and even make them at home if they could not be sourced in pharmacies.
In the latest episode of a political rivalry that has become a national joke amongst Ukrainians, Yushchenko promptly declared that the flu medicines had arrived in Ukraine "on the orders of the president".
And as befits a leader known for his unwavering pro-Western stance, he called on the European Union, the United States and even Nato for help in fighting the epidemic.
Matching a lightning trip by Tymoshenko to western Ukraine last week, Yushchenko headed to the western city of Lviv where he ordered that the flu should be suppressed within five to seven days.
Tymoshenko even said last week that cinemas would be shut down but this has not been implemented.
Fellow presidential candidate Arseniy Yatseniuk, a youthful contender given only an outside chance by most analysts, took a different view.
"There is no reason for panic," he said. "Is is very strange for me that the epidemic blazed up in the western regions of Ukraine, exactly where the fight for the electorate is at its greatest", Yatseniuk wrote in his blog.
Parliament speaker Volodymyr Litvin, also a presidential candidate, declared with some cynicism that the "flu epidemic will end when the presidential campaign ends".
The Regions Party of Yanukovich, which traditionally has always drawn its strength from the Russian speaking east of the country, meanwhile made a large show of collecting money for the victims of flu in the west.
It also called for the resignation of the health minister and handed out anti-flu masks to lawmakers and even journalists.
