Over 340,000 doses of influenza vaccines will be delivered to Ukraine in the current epidemiological season, Mikhail Radutsky, head of the parliamentary committee for the nation’s health, medical care and medical insurance, said.
In his Telegram channel on Tuesday, he specified that the Ministry of Health had reached an agreement with partners on the supply of 163,000 doses of the Vaxigripp vaccine from Sanofi as humanitarian aid and 30,000 doses of this vaccine as part of the PIVI project. In total, 193,000 doses of flu vaccines will be delivered to the country as aid.
In addition, according to Radutsky, in the current epidemiological season, 150,000 doses of the vaccine will be delivered to the private market of Ukraine – 100,000 GisiFlu and 50,000 Vaxigripp.
“Last year, more than 1 million doses of flu vaccines were purchased on the private market. This year, 150,000 doses are expected to be delivered. But if there is demand, I think private companies will buy more,” he added.
Radutsky also said that the Vaxigripp vaccine has already arrived at some pharmacies. At the same time, its cost is almost the same as last year – 300-400 UAH.
According to the estimates of the Ministry of Health, 4.7 million Ukrainians are recommended to be vaccinated against influenza for health reasons and medical indicators. Due to martial law and limited funding for public procurement, the critical need for vaccination of risk groups is set at 250,000 doses.
The risk group includes doctors, the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Security Service of Ukraine and pregnant women. They, according to applications from family doctors, if they wish, will be able to receive a flu shot free of charge.
In the current epidemiological season, Ukraine may face a twin-epidemic (simultaneous epidemics) of COVID-19 and influenza, Fedor Lapiy, head of the National Technical Expert Group on Immunoprophylaxis (NTEGI), predicts.
“There is reason to believe that this season’s flu will return to us, and we will meet with the so-called twindemic, that is, simultaneous epidemics of COVID-19 and influenza,” he said in an interview with Interfax-Ukraine.
Lapiy explained that a prerequisite for a twindemic now could be the fact that the flu was previously contained due to quarantine measures in force in Ukraine before the Russian military invasion to combat the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Over the past two years, the measures that were taken to prevent COVID-19: masks, quarantine measures, distance learning, etc., also contained the flu very well. Therefore, we have influenza in the 2020-2021 and 2021-2022 seasons in fact, there wasn’t, but his virus didn’t disappear anywhere. A non-immune layer has accumulated that will contribute to the flu epidemic. It is absolutely obvious that the tweendemia scenario can now be realized,” he said.
Lapiy noted that if a person is ill with these two diseases at the same time, this significantly worsens the prognosis, and the risk of death doubles.
The Ministry of Health, with the involvement of the British procurement agency Crown Agents, will purchase 1.41 million doses of influenza vaccines to vaccinate medical workers, educators, police and border guards, the press service of Chief Sanitary Doctor of Ukraine Viktor Liashko has reported.
The changes to government resolutions No. 255 dated March 13, 2019 and No. 129 dated February 19, 2020 were approved by the government at a meeting on Monday.
The agency will procure vaccines at the expense of the remaining balance of funds for 2019, provided for the procurement of drugs to accompany patients with cancer.
“All available vaccines have passed WHO prequalification and confirmed their safety. The countries of origin are the leaders in the production of vaccines in the world – France, the Netherlands and South Korea,” the press service said.
