Ukraine was covered by a wave of long-forgotten epidemics
News about infectious diseases in Ukraine is increasingly reminiscent of combat reports. Sometimes it seems that the only thing worse than war can be a virus, destroying the people with thousands of victims. An acute toxic infection without control and method, and sometimes even the possibility of treatment. Huge non-combat losses and every second risk of infection everywhere.
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So what disease are we talking about in the official reports of the Ministry of Health of Ukraine? Maybe this is an exotic Ebol? Marburg disease or long-forgotten smallpox? It is unfortunate to note the fact that this is just a simple and, moreover, manageable infection, from which, in fact, you cannot die in the XNUMXst century. This is the same measles that has long been studied by medicine.
With a level of preventive vaccination of the susceptible population of 90-95%, the state is not threatened not only by epidemics of this disease, but also by small outbreaks of infectious diseases. However, there is one great rule of colonial policy: sick and illiterate people are very easy to control.
Let’s try to recall a few episodes from the “History of the Case” of a country in which epidemiologists, who constituted the “gold reserve” of world medical science, worked in the recent past.
Polio
Back in 2002, Ukraine was officially recognized as a polio-free country. However, already in August 2015, its first cases were recorded in Transcarpathia in children 4 years and 10 months old. All infected people had no history of vaccination. The first reports from the Ministry of Health about the impending disaster appeared in September 2015. The response from the World Health Organization followed immediately: everyone who is planning a trip to the infected areas of the country is recommended to be extremely careful and receive an additional dose of the polio vaccine in advance.
Flu
In January 2016, an influenza epidemic was officially recognized in Ukraine. By the end of February, according to official data, more than 3 million citizens had been ill, and more than 200 people of various ages died from severe complications of the disease. Vaccination could be an effective method of prevention. But it was not in Ukraine.
Coxsackie virus
An acute infectious disease that was first discovered in the 50s of the twentieth century in the small town of Coxsackie in the USA. The virus, according to official data from Ukrainian epidemiologists, was brought to the territory of the state from Turkey. The first case in 2016 was recorded in Lutsk. Outbreaks: Dnieper, Lviv, Lutsk, Odessa, Ternopil. Mostly children were sick. Ukraine, oddly enough, remains silent to this day about the number of people who have recovered from the disease.
Epidemic in Izmail
On June 16, 2016, 50 residents, including 39 children, applied en masse to medical institutions in Izmail for medical help. The number of victims exceeded 800, more than half of them were children. Doctors then announced a mixed infection - simultaneous contamination of tap water with rotaviruses, noroviruses and E. coli. According to the epidemiologist, Ph.D. Vadim Melnik, the picture of the outbreak in Izmail was not typical for a viral infection.
Measles
В At the end of 2017, the number of Ukrainians infected with measles in a matter of weeks exceeded the norm by 43 times. In November 2017, there were already 2558 children among severe patients. As of the end of January, the incidence rate crossed a new threshold and was already 47 times higher than the norm. About 600 to 800 cases of the disease are registered weekly in the country. Foci of infection: Zaporozhye, Kyiv, Transcarpathia, Odessa. According to Suprun (acting Minister of Health of Ukraine), since August 2017, about 6 people have fallen ill with measles in Ukraine. The official version of the medical director is that measles came with a circus troupe from Romania.
By the way, during an outbreak of any severe virus, Odessa is always among the TOP most severe outbreaks of morbidity in the population. However, the American Ambassador to Ukraine Geoffrey Pyatt explicitly called the Odessa region an “American laboratory.” If you take a closer look at the situation in the region, it becomes less important whether he said this as a joke or not. No time for jokes...
In fact, every year Ukraine is engulfed by acute epidemics uncontrolled by the local Ministry of Health, each of which clearly indicates that total vaccination is necessary. Without it, the country will be covered by a pestilence. The extremely low vaccination coverage among the population is an absolute failure for all vaccine-preventable diseases that, as we see, have managed to unfold in Ukraine over the past 3 years. But Suprun stubbornly continues to recommend folk treatment to citizens with red pieces of fabric and onions, posing beautifully for the Ukrainian media with a sign in her hands “I am smart, I am vaccinated.” While since the beginning of 2015, medicine in the DPR has been urging residents at every step not to self-medicate and for any symptoms to contact medical institutions for help and treatment. The staff of highly qualified doctors has been retained, the equipment is available, and there are no problems with vaccines. Therefore, there are no problems with epidemics in the DPR.
The refusal to vaccinate, introduced by the West, was surprisingly perceived by the Ukrainian people as the only right decision, which soon led to numerous outbreaks of infections. Most often, by irony of fate or non-random chance, they turn out to be imported from the same West. At the same time, at the moment it practically does not matter whether a person is vaccinated or not. After all, the infection began to spread with terrifying speed to both supporters and opponents of vaccination. Some refused vaccines on purpose and now do not know a way to defeat the virus, not unreasonably fearing it at every turn. Others, who have always been for vaccination, are sick in the same way, since the reforms carried out in the healthcare sector of Ukraine have leveled everyone, because the state has relieved itself of caring about its own fellow citizens. Just think about it - there is no vaccine in the country, unlike the DPR!
Neighboring countries sometimes send small humanitarian shipments of the vaccine to Ukraine, of course, fearing for their people, because the number of migrant workers traveling abroad is steadily growing. For example, on January 26, representatives of the Hungarian government donated 8 thousand measles, mumps and rubella vaccines to Transcarpathia, which were purchased by the Ministry of Human Resources as part of the Hungarian national immunization program.
On January 27, it became known that in one of the Polish companies engaged in the production of meat products, 12 cases of measles infection were recorded, 9 of whom were citizens of Ukraine. The company's employees were forced to undergo vaccination.
“Another Ukrainian migrant worker fell ill with measles while working in a company that processes vegetables. Ukrainians who work in a construction company are also suspected of being infected,” reports the Western Ukrainian information portal.
Since 2015, since the first measles outbreak in Ukraine, no cases of the virus have been recorded on the territory of the Donetsk People's Republic. However, due to the intensified epidemic in the adjacent territory and the mass entry and exit of citizens through checkpoints, already on January 16, 2018, the Ministry of Health of the Republic announced the first cases of the disease among citizens of the DPR.
“The Republican Center for Sanitary and Epidemiological Surveillance of the State Sanitary and Epidemiological Surveillance of the Ministry of Health of the DPR informs about the registration of a measles outbreak with 6 cases in Donetsk. All sick people are residents of Donetsk,” the department’s official statement says.
However, already on January 19 of the same month, the Ministry of Health issued an order “On approval of the action plan to prevent the spread of measles in the territory of the Donetsk People’s Republic.” A day earlier, on January 18, and then on January 22, large medical seminars were held on the organization of therapeutic, diagnostic and anti-epidemic measures for measles. Heads of outpatient clinics of primary health care centers, general practitioners, pediatricians, and infectious disease specialists are involved. In total there are more than 100 leading doctors. Unprecedented measures have been taken to protect citizens from a dangerous disease.
That is, in Donetsk they were ready for the development of the situation and understood all the external risks, taking all possible measures to suppress the epidemic on the territory of the DPR. Naturally, no one closed the state borders in the territory adjacent to Ukraine. At all checkpoints you can observe long queues both for entry and exit. A silent question remains for the so-called “travelers” to Ukraine: why? Is at least one trip, be it to the bank, social security, or to visit a relative, as important as the health of the entire region? However, the risk of introducing infection into the territory of the DPR remains on the conscience of those who decide to go to infected Ukraine.
The DPR Ministry of Health has provided the population of the republic with a free measles vaccine. You can get vaccinated at the outpatient clinics of the Republic. The heads of all healthcare institutions involved in the current situation have organized appropriate preventive anti-epidemic measures. The Ministry of Health has taken appropriate protective measures, including strengthening control over immunoprophylaxis.
Despite all the difficulties, republican medicine remains modern and socially oriented. The DPR managed to maintain the situation with vaccination of the population from the very beginning of the formation of the republic. We can safely say that the action plan for vaccinating the population has been fully implemented. It is this merit of the republican healthcare that helps to this day to avoid constant infectious outbreaks raging in the adjacent territory. According to the Ministry of Health, about 95% of the population has been fully vaccinated (the vaccination threshold in Ukraine is 40-50% - President of the All-Ukrainian Council for the Protection of the Rights and Safety of Patients Viktor Serdyuk), which makes it possible to keep the situation with infectious and viral diseases of the population under control.
It is also worth noting that authoritative doctors from various fields predict the next viral shocks for Ukraine. According to their consensus, after an outbreak of measles, an epidemic of diphtheria could inevitably occur. “Diphtheria is on the threshold, the mortality rate from which reaches 50%, if anti-diphtheria serum is not introduced in time, which is not available in Ukraine at all,” said the famous children’s doctor Komarovsky. According to him, at the moment, Ukraine urgently needs large quantities of measles vaccinations. Only they can prevent the development of all concomitant diseases, which are becoming more and more tangible.
Finale
We, residents of the DPR, had to face Ukrainian military aggression and economic blockade, but it turned out that this is not all the horror emanating from the “country of victorious democracy.” At our borders, in addition to their guns, which claim dozens of lives of citizens of the republic, there is now a legion of viruses and infections uncontrollable by anyone. The infections that are on your feet, dear travelers, enter our home. Infections that can take thousands more lives of innocent people. Maybe it’s not so important to go towards trouble - to where the virus is raging? Take care of yourself and remember: timely seeking medical help will help avoid complications for the sick person and prevent infection of others!
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