  We suggest that the fluctuations of strange hadron multiplicity could be
sensitive to the equation of state and microscopic structure of strongly
interacting matter created at the early stage of high energy nucleus-nucleus
collisions. They may serve as an important tool in the study of the
deconfinement phase transition. We predict, within the statistical model of the
early stage, that the ratio of properly filtered fluctuations of strange to
non-strange hadron multiplicities should have a non-monotonic energy dependence
with a minimum in the mixed phase region.
