The Turkmen government is having difficulty suppressing the terror that swine flu has evoked across the world. Image by Flickr user Phamous (CC-usage).

Editor’s note: Has Turkmenistan come down with a bad case of the swine flu?  neweurasia’s Annasoltan investigates in this second part of a post series on Turkmen healthcare.  During this past weekend, neweurasia’s Timur and Bakhrom debate whether the disease is a serious threat.  Read the rest of our ongoing coverage on the disease here.

The Turkmen government loves information blackouts.  There are too many examples to count but if you’ve been reading neweurasia these last few years you’ll know what I mean.

This time, however, the attempt to suppress the truth about swine flu deaths — whether any have occurred in Turkmenistan and, if so, how many — has backfired.  Public confidence, already eroding since September, is dissipating further.  In fact, and quite ironically, the government’s attempts to prevent panic have had the opposite effect.

Panic in Ashgabad

According to EurasiaNet,

The Turkmen government is not carrying out a public education campaign about the risks, the flu’s symptoms, or treatment, the November 1 report on Chrono-tm.org claimed. As a result, rumors are sweeping the Turkmen capital, and city residents are buying flu medicines and respiratory masks in a panic.

The Chronicles of Turkmenistan, the news wing of the Vienna-based Turkmen Initiative for Human Rights, reports:

For the last two weeks, Ashgabat`s drugs stores have been facing a real boom. When they still had antibiotics, respirators and oxolin nasal ointment in stock, more than 50 persons queued up. As of today, most of the drugs stores have run out of this medication.

One can often see people wearing respiratory masks in town, which has never been the case in Turkmenistan, and this is a good illustration of how scared the people are. For those, who work in crowded places, the medical masks have become an integral part of every day life.

Speculators, who took advantage of the deficit of masks and antibiotics, are selling them at a price, which is many times higher than in the drug stores. For instance, medical masks are sold at 35 000 - 50 000 (while in drug stores, if there are any, they cost 5000 - 10000 manats), and oxolin nasal ointment, which costs 20 000 manats in drug stores, costs between 50 000 and 80 000. All prices are given in non-denominated manats (14250 manats = $1).

When no news is bad news

Frustrated about the government’s handling of the disease and suspicious of the silence from the state media, many Turkmens are now turning to ORT, RTR Planeta, Vesti and other Russian TV channels, and even RFE/RL’s Turkmen service broadcasted via satellite transmission (even people living in the remotest corners of the country own satellite receivers).

An Ashgabad resident, speaking on condition of anonymity, expresses her frustration to me quite ironically:

The loud resounding official slogan, ‘the state is there to serve the people’, means to me just the opposite: that people should serve the state.

Baffling incompetence…

While other former Soviet countries, such as Ukraine, Belarus, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan, have reported cases and in turn have received flu vaccines from the World Health Organization (WHO), with no statistics Turkmenistan is being left to its own devices.

The government has been attempting to reign in the situation, but its actions have been uncoordinated and discomforting.  Some examples from my sources:

• doctors have been instructions to make home visits with the express purpose to allay concerns about the flu;
• medical workers have in the capital have been banned from wearing face masks; and,
• children have also been banned from waring face masks in school.

Yet, many people on the streets of the city continue to use masks and rumors are spreading about swine flu-related fatalities.

My sources tell me that posters hung up on the walls of public buildings warning about H1N1 by UNICEF have been removed and the distribution of dozens tons of official leaflets has been halted.  The leaflets were part of an ill-conceived propaganda campaign.  RFE/RL reports,

In October, correspondents in Ashgabat and in the Mary and Lebab provinces reported that one-page leaflets explaining flu symptoms and preventative measures were being distributed among the population.  The hitch was that the leaflets — which advised people with symptoms to check their temperature, stay in bed, and to take nonprescription flu medications — discussed bird flu, not swine flu.

Here’s a photograph of one of those leaflets, courtesy of RFE/RL’s Turkmen service:

Farid Tuhbatullin, head of the Turkmen Initiative for Human Rights, adds,

[T]he government’s handling could contribute to the spread of swine flu.

…or something sinister?

Yet, this is a government known for its efficient methods of repression.  This bumbling is profoundly uncharacteristic — or is it?  In tomorrow’s post I will explore more of everyday Turkmens’ reactions to the swine flu, as well as the question of what may be going on behind the closed doors of the government.