Votes from Serbia: Patients Say They Are Not Feeling Good

Two of the twelve patients laid down at the Infectious Clinic in Kosovo's University Clinical Centre, who sought medical assistance after complaining that allergic reactions had been presented as they were checking envelopes coming from Serbia, say they continue not feeling well. Free Europe Radio has talked to the two patients being kept under health supervision at the Infectious Clinic.

The previous day, the National Institute of Public Health of Kosovo through a news conference, came up with the presentation of the results of the tests of these patients, consisting that those lying in the hospital have no signs of infection or infectious diseases as a result of opening envelopes.

Vlora Plepoli, one of the patients laid down at the Infectious Clinic, told Radio Free Europe that they are not feeling well. She also said patients are continuing to receive therapy as well as inhalation.

I'm not feeling very well right now. We've had different symptoms, starting with vomiting, so we've started vomiting in the workplace. We've come to the Infectious Clinic with a scratch, and we have photos of how we felt and how we were”, she says.

Plepoli also told about Sunday, October 13th, when they were opening their envelopes, according to her, Central Election Commission officials had shown them symptoms for which they had been forced to seek medical help.

We're currently receiving therapy, transfusion and inhalation. Now let's see what they're saying. I haven't had any symptoms before, but with the opening of the envelopes when we started working, so a short period after the envelope opened, every 10 or 15 minutes one by one, we started to feel bad. We started vomiting, but we thought it was heavy wind from envelopes that were in box”, Plepolly said.

The situation in the space in which the votes coming from Serbia were being opened and verified, according to her, was worsening because of a reek.

We've asked the supervisors to ask the boss to do something to get rid of the wind. We opened the windows, but it didn't work. Then the situation has begun to deteriorate and we have requested medical assistance”, Plepol said.

Even Zyhrije Ibrahimi, another patient who was hospitalised, told Radio Free Europe that he had faced a reaction while verifying the envelopes coming from Serbia, but even now after four days, she says, is not feeling well.

“We're not feeling well despite what they're saying the analysis is good. We suspect there was something there, because we felt very bad. I'm a mother of four and I've never had this kind of torture, vomiting, like Sunday. I've had eyeburning, vomiting and we've been really bad, all of us”, she said.

At the Infectious Clinic, the task of director of this clinic, Linda Ayzay-Berisha, said all results rule out the possibility of any infectious diseases in hospitalised persons as the results have proved negative.

So, in the blood tests given to patients, it is ruled out the possibility of an infectative cause”, she said, adding that her clinic was doing only the analysis of infectious pathogens, while the “other results are pending”.

Meanwhile, asked by the REL why patients are still being held at the clinic because tests have not given any signs of infection, she said this is happening because of hospital procedures.

The patient's status is very good and stable. But we have certain procedures, and with the goal of completion we will still hold (in the hospital). We don't know when we're going to let them go because there's nothing in medicine we can give in a matter of minutes. The important thing is that patients are stable (healthy)”, Ayzaj-Berisha said.

Radio Free Europe also explained to Mrs. Berisha that she has contacted some of the patients on the table and that they have said they are still not feeling well in health, for which she said there is no answer.

For further proposals, we will see, because I have nothing to say to”, Berisha said.

The case, created with ballot packages from Serbia, has not yet been closed, despite the results of patients' analysis.

Kosovo's prosecutorial authorities are in search of a laboratory outside Kosovo to examine envelopes from Serbia. Such a request was issued as a result of the meeting Kosovo President Hashim Thaci had held early in the week with the leading prosecutorial authorities, the Kosovo Central Election and Police Commission.