Doctors urge not to neglect vaccination, both for children and adults.
The week of immunization started today in the region.
“During this week, we want to remind about the importance of immunization and the need to observe the national vaccination calendar. Each of us understands that we are currently living in wartime and the main priority of the health care system is focused directly on providing assistance to those people who suffer from the aggressor and our defenders, so getting vaccinated is extremely important. The vaccine is the only method that allows us to protect ourselves and our relatives. Let me remind you that with the help of vaccines it is possible to prevent various ailments that can lead to the most serious complications and deaths,” said Orest Chemerys, director of the health care department of the Lviv OVA.
This week’s slogan is “Vaccines save”. Doctors of the Lviv region emphasize that all vaccines are in sufficient quantity.
“The state protects against 10 infectious diseases free of charge. These are: tuberculosis, whooping cough, diphtheria, tetanus, poliomyelitis, hemophilic infection, viral hepatitis B, measles, rubella, epidemic parotitis. And also COVID-19. You can get vaccinated free of charge in public health care institutions, as well as private ones that have signed an agreement with the National Health Service and declare the population accordingly,” explained Nataliya Ivanchenko, general director of Lviv Regional Center for Disease Control and Prevention of the Ministry of Health of Ukraine.
To get vaccinated, a person can contact a family doctor. However, lack of declaration is not a reason for refusal of vaccination.
“If a person is an IDP or has not yet chosen his family doctor, he will not be denied preventive vaccinations free of charge. Today, IDPs can be vaccinated thanks to mobile teams that constantly travel around the territory of Lviv region and carry out vaccinations. Also, displaced people are invited to stationary vaccination centers so that they can receive vaccination services,” Nataliya Ivanchenko added.
She emphasized that cases of whooping cough have increased in the Lviv region.
“If last year only one case was registered in the region for the whole year, then only in March of this year there are already 4 cases among children. It is not for nothing that there is a calendar of preventive vaccinations and doctors invite you to be vaccinated at certain intervals – this is the most correct way to create an effective immune response after the introduction of the vaccine.”
If, for some reason, a person has not received preventive vaccinations according to the calendar, then he needs to make up for all the missing doses as soon as possible, observing the intervals, and then get vaccinated according to the calendar.
“For 3 months of 2023, 24% of children aged 1 year in the region were vaccinated against measles, rubella and epidemic parotitis, 22% against diphtheria, tetanus and whooping cough, similarly against poliomyelitis. Although it is alarming that only 11% of children aged 16 are vaccinated. If we are talking about adults, who must receive their additional dose against diphtheria and tetanus once every 10 years, so that the body is always ready to meet the pathogen, only 9% of Lviv residents were vaccinated and received their dose,” Nataliya Ivanchenko added.
As part of the World Immunization Week, a number of events will be held in the region. This includes a bus with a vaccination team that will travel around Lviv, educational events for parents with children, etc. All in order to make vaccination even more accessible and debunk myths about its implementation.
As doctors explain, a contraindication to vaccination is a severe allergic reaction to the previous dose of the vaccine. They also urge not to forget the elderly, people with chronic diseases, as they are more vulnerable to pathogens.
“Today there is an outbreak of measles in Ukraine. It is important that all children, who for various reasons did not receive the vaccine against it, should be vaccinated,” the doctors add.
They remind not to forget about vaccination against covid. The first booster dose is recommended no earlier than 5 months after the main vaccine complex, the second booster dose no earlier than 4 months after the first. Today, only approximately 8% of people in Lviv region received the first booster dose, and slightly less than 1% of the second.
Together with the World Immunization Week, a week of primary immunodeficiencies continues in Lviv region.
According to doctors, such a disease requires medical supervision and often additional vaccination.
By the way, within the week of early diagnosis, the Lviv Regional Diagnostic Center conducts screening studies to detect the level of immunoglobulins, as the first marker that can indicate immunodeficiencies.