Since the beginning of June, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention of the Ministry of Health have examined 545 people with acute intestinal infections for cholera, the causative agent of cholera has not been identified. As the Ministry of Health reported with reference to the Deputy Minister of Health – Chief State Sanitary Doctor Igor Kuzin, the department began enhanced epidemiological surveillance of cholera from June 1.
“This happens every summer, because this is a favorable time for the spread of this disease. In the first two weeks, out of 1,874 patients with acute intestinal infections, 545 people were examined for cholera. No cholera vibrios were found in those examined,” Kuzin said.
He said that since the beginning of June, more than 550 samples of fresh water, 47 samples of sea water and 215 samples of sewage have been examined, and no cholera vibrios were found according to the results of the studies.
Growth of sales under the Affordable Medicines program that reimburses the cost of medicines has suspended, and pharmaceutical manufacturers are waiting for the expansion of the list of diseases under the program, Marketing and Sales Director at PJSC Farmak Susana Khalilova has said. “As for the Affordable Medicines program, it seems that the further quantitative growth in sales of medicines has stopped. A fuss about it has fallen. A more or less clear number of patients has been formed,” she said in an interview with Interfax-Ukraine. She said that “it was simply a “madhouse” at the beginning of the Affordable Medicines program – pharma companies could not guess the necessary number of medicines.”
“A year has passed and we understand approximately how many and what preparations are needed. Patients calmed down a bit and do not buy two or three packages to have them for the future. It took time to establish the process,” she said.
According to Khalilova, the Ministry of Health had to calculate the number of medicines required for participation in the program. “If the state at the very beginning have said how much money it would spend on a certain molecule or announced the approximate consumption of the concrete drug, it would have been much easier,” she said. In addition, Khalilova said that Farmak receives information on cases of a lack of budget funds for the Affordable Medicines program.
Farmak is a member of the Association Manufacturers of Medications of Ukraine (AMMU).
