Public health officials have warned that the threat of pandemics could be exploited for political purposes. Now the magazine Foreign Policy claims that Ukrainian prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko has deliberately exaggerated fears of a swine-flu epidemic to boost her flagging presidential campaign.

"We had to create a phantom and then have a white knight riding in to save the day," Taras Berezovets, a senior campaign advisor for Tymoshenko's BYuT bloc, told journalist Julia Ioffe – although he subsequently said that his remarks had been taken out of context.

The poorly organised Ukrainian health system responded sluggishly and almost 400 people died of the flu in just three weeks, according to Foreign Policy. Pharmacies ran out of surgical masks and medicines after panic buying and hoarding.

Tymoshenko organised a delivery of Tamiflu, quarantined nine regions of the country, closed all schools and universities, and petitioned the president for US$125 million in emergency funding. She also banned all mass gatherings and political rallies -- after hers had finished. 

However, most of this may not have been needed. The World Health Organization observed that "the numbers of severe cases do not appear to be excessive when compared to the experience of other countries".

But her show of vigorous action may have worked. Since then, Ms Tymoshenko has been steadily making up a huge gap in the polls. If she wins the January election, it could be first poll to be decided by a pandemic. ~ Foreign Policy, Nov 25