WHO investigates suspected A/H1N1 outbreak in Ukraine

The World Health Organization began investigating a suspected A/H1N1 outbreak in Ukraine on Tuesday, causing neighboring Russia and Slovakia to tighten borders with the country.

Meanwhile in Germany, two people reportedly died from the virus.

The death toll from flu climbed to 86 in Ukraine since the outbreak last week.

Blood tests have yet to determine how many deaths were from the new and aggressive strain.

As a precaution, schools and universities across the country will remain closed this week, and officials urge people in western Ukraine to stay away from public places.

The WHO says most flu cases in Ukraine can be assumed to be A/H1N1.

It recommends against restricting travel or closing borders, calling such measures ineffective in preventing the spread of the virus.

However, Slovakia, which lies on Ukraine's western border, closed two of its five border crossings with Ukraine.

In Russia, officials will examine anyone crossing the border from Ukraine and quarantine people with severe symptoms.

In Dusseldorf, Germany, residents are flocking to vaccination centres after medical authorities reported the country's first A/H1N1 flu death in a person with no other known health problems.

Elsewhere in Germany, authorities report a five-year-old child with a severe pulmonary infection also died from the flu.

The two deaths bring the number of Germans who died from A/H1N1 to five.

Last week the WHO said about five-thousand people died from the virus worldwide.

The figure is considered low, since most countries stopped counting individual cases.

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