Experts warn risk of public health catastrophe in Ukraine amid war

Amid the shelling by the Russian army in Ukraine, a convoy of five vans has been reported to slowly retrieve from the war hit capital Kyiv, moving towards Chernihiv, the northeast part of the country with generators, fuel, medications, and clothes on board to treat the HIV patients.

With the main bridge annihilated by firing and bombarding, the drivers snaked along the back roads in hope to reach Chernihiv as soon as possible and start the treatment of around 3,000 residents, desperately in need of the medications.

As per sources, organizers taking initiatives like this are trying to avoid the situation of the war in Ukraine turn into a public health catastrophe.

The war threatens to upend the progress made through decades against infectious diseases in the country giving rise to new epidemics which will be impossible to curb.  

According to credible reports, Ukraine houses an alarmingly high number of people affected with hepatitis C and HIV and dangerously less levels of vaccinations against polio, measles, and COVID-19 pandemic.

During the war, the unsanitary and overcrowded living conditions for refugees are susceptible to be breeding grounds for diarrheal diseases and cholera as well as respiratory diseases like tuberculosis, coronavirus, and pneumonia.

Dmytro Sherembei, Head of 100% Life, the firm which provides medicines to residents with HIV at Chernihiv stated that a mass section of the population in Ukraine is susceptible to die due to lack of medicines and treatment, if not by bombarding.

Apparently, Health Ministry of Ukraine in the recent years progressed in curbing epidemics, recording a 36% drop in tuberculosis diagnosis and 21% decline in HIV infections since 2010.

However, the health officials now worry that the delayed diagnosis and treatment halted due to the war may cause these pathogens to rise again with severing consequences that ripple for years.

Source Credit: - https://www.moneycontrol.com/news/world/public-health-catastrophe-looms-in-ukraine-experts-warn-8282521.html