Ukraine is running out of critical medical supplies and has had to halt urgent efforts to curb a polio outbreak since Russia invaded the country last week, experts say in public health.
Medical needs are already acute, and the World Health Organization (WHO) warned that oxygen supplies were running low. On Tuesday, the WHO said in a briefing that some facilities were already out of oxygen.
“The oxygen supply situation is approaching a very dangerous point in Ukraine”, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus and Regional Director for Europe Hans Kluge said in a joint statement. “Most hospitals could run out of oxygen in the next 24 hours. Some have already sold out. This puts thousands of lives at risk”.
🇺🇦 Hospitals in #Ukraine could run out of medical #oxygen in the next 24 hours, endangering life of thousands of patients in critical condition, according to the #WHO. (few) https://t.co/5lGn20S5SV
— DW Spanish (@dw_espanol) March 1, 2022
Public health crisis in Ukraine
Fear to a broader public health crisis is growing as people flee their homes, health services are interrupted and supplies are not reaching Ukraine, which has also been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. 19.
Sergii Dubrov, anesthetist who works in various hospitals in the Ukrainian capital , Kiev, said that they had enough supplies for the next two weeks, but that the situation was delicate.
“Most of my colleagues have been sleeping in the hospital and working almost 40 hours per day since 24 February ”, he told Reuters in a telephone interview, referring to the first day of the invasion.
WHO spokesman, Tarik Jasarevic said on Monday that routine immunization and polio outbreak control work had been suspended in Ukraine due to the fighting. The WHO has received reports that coronavirus vaccination campaigns have also been suspended in many parts of the country, it said.
Poliomyelitis in Europe
Last October, the first case of poliomyelitis in Europe since five years ago –a child of 17 months who was paralyzed– and in January another paralysis case. Other 19 children with the vaccine-derived form of polio, but without symptoms of paralysis, have been identified.
On February 1, a national polio vaccination campaign began to reach the 100.000 children who are still unprotected in Ukraine, but it has been interrupted since the fighting began and while the health authorities come to pay attention emergency.
The WHO said that electricity shortages in some areas had affected security of vaccine stocks, and that surveillance had been discontinued.
“The WHO is working to urgently develop contingency plans to support Ukraine and prevent further spread of polio caused by the conflict,” Jasarevic said.
Medications for HIV patients are in short supply
For its part, the agency of e The UN for HIV/AIDS has declared that there is less than a month of medicines left in Ukraine for HIV patients.
“People living with HIV in Ukraine have only a few weeks of antiretroviral therapy left, and without continued access their lives are in danger,” said UNAIDS Executive Director, Winnie Byanyima.
Before the Russian invasion began, Ukraine had 100.000 people living with HIV, the second largest number in Europe after Russia.
COVID-17 also continues to be a cause for concern, as only slightly more than one of every three people is fully vaccinated against this viral disease. Daily new cases reached a peak of about 40.000 in February, but were declining before reporting stopped after the Russian invasion.
The humanitarian aid organization Project HOPE said on Monday that pharmacies in all the attacked Ukrainian cities reported that they had run out of medical supplies.
FEW (Reuters, WHO)
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