Exodus of Ukrainians complicates Europe just as it prepares to end the pandemic

The start of a war like the one that began twelve days ago in Ukraine, after the Russian offensive, will not only have geopolitical, economic and social consequences, but will also have an impact on health matters on the European continent, which was already planning to get ready for the end of the pandemic.

Every day thousands of people are leaving Ukraine seeking asylum and refuge, the majority in Poland, Hungary, Moldova, Romania and Slovakia, while others have moved to other European countries and a significant number have traveled to Russia. Displacement have caused Ukraine’s epidemiological controls, its vaccination plans and its sanitary measures to be greatly breached in recent daysand the displaced are exposed to overcrowding and unhealthy situations.

The situation of the pandemic in Ukraine worries Europe, where there was already talk of removing health restrictions. Weeks before the conflict, The nation was experiencing its worst wave of coronavirus infections since the pandemic began.

Just a few days before the start of the offensive, exceeded 37,000 daily cases, and currently fewer cases are reported, but it is unknown if it is due to system failures or because the wave is actually decreasing. At the same time, the possible collapse of the health system due to the offensive raises fears of the worst and that there is an increase in deaths not only from COVID-19, but from all kinds of diseases. BBC.

Richard Selfman, a World Bank health adviser, warned that “whatever the duration or nature of the armed conflict in Ukraine, will have a negative effect on health systems, disrupt surveillance and response systems, and lead to an increase in disease known preventable infectious diseases; even more so with COVID-19 and any future variants.”

Amid the fear, European experts have said that the only good news is that omicron is the dominant variant in the area, so no serious cases are expected. However, there is nothing to guarantee that only the variant from which cases arise is omicron, and they emphasize that it must be taken into account that new mutations of the virus are likely to appear, he says. EFE.

The whole health panorama that refugees entail complicates the long-awaited elimination of health restrictions and makes it urgent to strengthen surveillance and response systems against the virus on the continent.

Faced with this situation, the senior officials of the World Health Organization (WHO) have already issued statements and have called for the “urgent need” to establish a safe corridor to facilitate the arrival of medical supplies in the midst of the war conflict.

Last week they already sent medical supplies, transported from Dubai to Poland, which could cover the needs of around 150,000 people.

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director of the WHO, announced that there will be more shipments in the coming days and revealed that $5.2 million has already been withdrawn from the organization’s emergency fund, but that another $45 million will be needed for the next three days. months.

The director of the WHO in Ukraine, Jarno Habicht, regretted the impossibility of distributing the medical supplies stored in the agency’s warehouses in Kiev and cited among the concerns the lack of oxygen and medicines and the problems to carry out the vaccination campaign against polio.

The WHO has also expressed concern about reports of attacks on hospitals and health personnel, although it admitted that only one has been confirmed so far.

“The neutrality of hospitals and staff must be respected and protected. To do otherwise would be a violation of international law,” Adhamom said.

However, for Ukraine, having to deal with illness during a conflict is not something new. In 2014, when the offensive for the Russian annexation of the Crimean peninsula and other areas of the Ukrainian Donbás began, measles took the opportunity to cause a new outbreak, according to Unicef.

The country went from 4,782 cases of measles to 35,120 in a single year. The immunization rate against this disease fell from 98% in 2006 to 42% in 2016.

Meanwhile, as a measure to prevent the increase in infections in the face of displacement, Italy announced that it will offer vaccines against COVID-19 to all Ukrainian refugees arriving in the country.

The Italian Government will submit diagnostic tests for the virus within 48 hours of entering Italy, where all of them will be offered vaccination, according to a new directive from the Ministry of Health, which warns that coverage with the vaccine in Ukraine it is “one of the lowest in Europe”.

The Italian health system alerted the regions of the necessary guidelines to regulate the health situation of the coronavirus in the Ukrainian refugees who arrive in Italy due to the war and that could amount to about 800,000.

“According to available data, vaccination coverage against COVID-19 in Ukraine is around 35% of the population, one of the lowest in Europe,” the entity warned.

“It is clear that we are going to offer vaccination, but what the people who come to us need is a hug,” said the Undersecretary for Health, Pierpaolo Sileri, stressing that vaccination will always be optional.

Refugee status “allows access to our health care” and “does not provide for the mandatory health certificate”, so refugees can travel on public transport, whether buses or trains, after “a security check”, Sileri added.

It is possible that the Ukrainian initiative will be replicated in the rest of the countries where Ukrainians fleeing the conflict are arriving. (I)