Pre-vaccination is planned in Ukraine to avoid infection outbreaks: Ministry of Health has named the deadlines

Ukraine will hold a round of vaccination sessions to avoid outbreaks of infectious diseases in the next few months, the Ministry of Health of Ukraine reported on Tuesday, UNN reports.

Details

We are talking about additional immunization activities at the level of regions and communities, which will be carried out by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC). The heads of regional CDCs received this task during a joint regional meeting from the Chief State Sanitary Doctor of Ukraine. 

"Over the past three years, the Ministry has annually initiated additional rounds of immunization and catch-up vaccination campaigns against infectious diseases where vaccination coverage was critically low," said Deputy Minister of Health and Chief State Sanitary Doctor of Ukraine Ihor Kuzin.

According to him, in 2022 there was a campaign for accelerated immunization against polio. In 2023, there will be a catch-up vaccination campaign against measles, mumps, rubella, and in 2024 - against diphtheria, tetanus, and pertussis. Despite this, he said, the coverage of routine vaccinations last year did not reach the 95% recommended by the WHO.

The threat of a measles outbreak remains this year, given the imported cases of measles at the end of 2024 and insufficient vaccination coverage in some regions. Therefore, it is necessary to plan and implement additional vaccinations in certain regions to minimize the risks of possible outbreaks. Taking into account the analysis of the epidemic situation in their regions, the CDCs will create local plans for additional vaccination against infectious diseases in the next few months to prevent possible outbreaks

In particular, children who have missed scheduled vaccinations according to the National Immunization Schedule and adults who have not received revaccinations will be additionally reminded of the importance of vaccinations and invited to vaccination by the CDC specialists and doctors. In remote communities and towns, mobile vaccination teams will reportedly work to expand access to immunization services.

"The measures should begin in the next few months," the Ministry of Health noted. 

The additional immunization activities are expected to raise the vaccination coverage against major infectious diseases to 80% for most vaccinations as part of routine immunization. "These figures show that Ukraine is reaching pre-war levels of vaccination, but they remain insufficient to ensure herd immunity. According to the WHO recommendations, the vaccination coverage rate should reach 95%," the Ministry of Health said.

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