On the move for health: defending Ukraine against vaccine-preventable diseases
Vaccination efforts have been strengthened in Ukraine, particularly in remote and hard-to-reach areas, with 59 buses donated by WHO to the Ministry of Health as part of a collaborative effort to leave no one behind. Over the past year, the buses, made possible by funding from the European Union (EU), have been functioning as mobile health-care units, capable of travelling across all regions controlled by the Government of Ukraine. Amidst the ongoing war, this immunization initiative, supported by WHO and the EU, is helping to protect people against vaccine-preventable diseases while increasing the resilience of health-care services in the country.
The buses are staffed by mobile and outreach teams who administer vaccines against various infectious diseases, including COVID-19, measles, hepatitis, polio, haemophilus influenzae type b, tetanus and diphtheria. The primary focus is on reaching individuals with limited mobility, as well as vulnerable groups – such as the elderly and those with chronic health conditions – in areas that pose access challenges.
The war has made it harder for people to get vaccinated in Ukraine. Obstacles include the displacement of populations, destruction of health-care infrastructure, and disruption of logistical routes for delivering medical products. This profound impact raises concerns about the potential for outbreaks of polio, measles and other diseases, and has prompted the need for innovative solutions to sustain access to immunization. The buses play a crucial role in this context, reaching thousands of people across 323 villages in the regions of Lviv and Rivne between February and October 2023. They made it possible to administer 9424 vaccine doses for elderly people aged 60+ years and 8136 vaccine doses for children aged 0–16 years.
Guarding against disease outbreaks
Thanks to concerted efforts of international partners of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative, together with the Ministry of Health of Ukraine, a polio outbreak first detected in 2021 was declared closed by WHO in September 2023, underscoring the country’s determination to address this significant health risk. However, challenges persist.
For example, while some countries have fully recovered their immunization rates from before COVID-19, average coverage with the first dose of measles-containing vaccine for the WHO European Region as a whole decreased significantly from 96% in 2019 to 93% in 2022. Many children born during the pandemic missed routine vaccinations, making this cohort of children particularly susceptible and in need of catch-up vaccinations.
After a period of low measles detection in the European Region in 2021, cases have been increasing since early 2022, with over 30 000 cases reported by 40 Member States for the period January to October 2023, a substantial increase compared to 942 cases for the whole of 2022. A large proportion of the cases has been among children under 5 years of age.
Dr Jarno Habicht, WHO Representative in Ukraine, said, ”In spite of the war, Ukraine’s immunization programme continues. It is imperative to keep up with routine vaccinations. Every missed dose increases the country’s vulnerability to diseases: the war has made it difficult for some people to get vaccinated, but Ukraine’s immunization programme as a whole remained remarkably resilient. While the closure of the polio outbreak in September this year marks a significant achievement, the risk of a polio outbreak remains high. Measles is also a real concern, especially with the increase of cases across the Region. We have to move fast and work together. I can’t repeat enough what we know is efficient, proven, and safe to prevent such public health emergencies: vaccination, vaccination, vaccination".