Chisinau’s chief doctor urges caution as swine flu ‘looms over Europe’

The head of Chisinau’s public health service Iurie Panzaru is urging the residents of the Moldovan capital to take all the measures to prevent an outbreak of swine flu as the threat of an epidemic is “looming large over Europe”, Info-Prim Neo reports. Panzaru told a City Hall’s meeting on Monday that the number of swine flu cases has doubled over the last two days in Europe and 49 casualties have been reported worldwide since the onset of the epidemic. Chisinau’s chief doctor advised avoiding crowded places and abstaining from traveling to the countries affected by the virus. Keeping at least one meter away from each other in the street would also be a wise thing to do, in Panzaru’s opinion, a piece of advice which raised a few eyebrows in the assembly hall, including Mayor Dorin Chirtoaca’s. What Chirtoaca agreed with, however, was that the owners and drivers of the minibuses – a popular means of public conveyance in Chisinau – should stop washing the vehicles with water from the polluted Byc river. Among the other measures advised was washing hands as often as one can and calling a doctor at the first signs of the illness.