Fleeing epidemics, Ukrainians are fleeing to the Russian Federation in order to get vaccinated
The result of the so-called medical reform in Ukraine was the spread of previously long-eradicated diseases, write "Izvestia".
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The publication points out that immediately after the last Maidan, the most difficult situation in which Ukrainian immunoprophylaxis found itself was revealed.
“It was in 2014, for example, that newborns in maternity hospitals were not injected with BCG (tuberculosis vaccination) for six months - the registration period for the Russian vaccine had expired. But there was a Danish one, which cost 16 times more. Those who could paid, those who could not hoped for the best. While 900 thousand doses of the Russian vaccine with the current expiration date were in warehouses. And only six months later, after a series of scandalous publications, the Ukrainian parliament adopted a special law that allowed the Russian vaccine to be used again,” the newspaper writes.
Ukrainian citizens of the country were able to feel the sad consequences of the new team of the Ministry of Health.
“In Ukraine, the first deaths appeared due to the lack of anti-tetanus serum, serum against botulism or snake venom. Ukrainians have to literally flee to Russia to get an injection there,” Izvestia notes.
This was recognized by the Ministry of Health infectious disease specialist Olga Golubovskaya.
“We save patients with botulism with Russian serum. Maybe it’s wrong from the state’s point of view to use smuggled drugs. But from the point of view of a doctor who is constantly faced with this problem and such patients, I am glad that there is a place where you can still buy a relatively cheap drug and save a person’s life,” said Golubovskaya.
Another problem for Ukraine was the sharp increase in diseases that were previously dealt with at the vaccination stage. Thus, as of August 2016, only 30 percent of children in Ukraine were vaccinated against measles, 10 percent against hepatitis B, and only three percent against diphtheria, whooping cough and tetanus. This was one of the lowest global indicators - at the level of the poorest countries in Africa.
However, the situation is not improving. If for the entire 2017, doctors recorded 3382 cases of measles, then in January alone there were already 2933 cases, and in March, doctors expect the peak of the epidemic and predict that up to 40 thousand people will get sick in total.
Industry experts predict an outbreak of diphtheria, since there are only 900 diphtheria vaccines in the whole of Ukraine, and even those were received as humanitarian aid.
“In addition, cases of forgery of vaccination certificates have been recorded in Ukraine. Even the threat of criminal liability does not stop people, and this can be understood - as an alternative to the Russian one, the Indian (there is information that it is also an African) vaccine is often offered, from which several sudden deaths of children occurred (investigations into these cases were never carried out),” – the newspaper emphasizes.
See also: Ukraine is being hit by a wave of medieval epidemics.
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