During the summer-autumn of this year, the Ministry of Health plans to conduct a campaign for catch-up vaccination against diphtheria and tetanus for both children and adults.
Deputy Minister of Health, Chief State Sanitary Doctor Igor Kuzin told Ukrinform about this in a commentary.
“As part of this year, we plan to conduct a catch-up campaign for vaccination with the ADP-M vaccine – this is a vaccine against diphtheria and tetanus. Currently, Ukrainian coverage of these vaccinations is 36% lower than the average for the European region. Given that this vaccine is used for both children and adults, that is, it is used from the first years of life and every 10 years for adults, this will be a fairly broad campaign, since we need to cover both the child and adult populations. This will be during the summer and fall. It is important for us to reach children so that they receive basic vaccinations. After the start of the school year, we will be able to switch to the adult population,” Kuzin said.
According to him, a microplanning process will take place in May, when at the level of each region, epidemiologists, together with specialists from clinics, hospitals, and family doctors, will conduct analysis of which categories will be vaccinated and in what order.
“It is advisable to reach indicators of at least 95% (vaccination coverage – ed.), but after microplanning we will be able to more accurately say what indicators will be realistic. This will depend on the number of medical contraindications, on the number of people actually living in a particular territory, and the like. Considering the situation, I think that the figures should definitely be higher than 85%,” said the chief state sanitary doctor.
He added that the health care system will prepare for the season of enhanced cholera surveillance; an increase in incidence is expected for the summer period acute intestinal infections, measles also remains relevant.
As Ukrinform reported, five cases of measles have been recorded in Ukraine since the beginning of the year; last year, 65 cases of measles were recorded. In 2023, the Ministry of Health conducted a catch-up vaccination campaign against measles. At the end of the year, 92.4% of one-year-old children and 87.3% of 6-year-olds were vaccinated against measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) in Ukraine. To achieve herd immunity, the level of vaccination coverage, according to WHO recommendations, must be at least 95%.
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