Dmitry Kiselyov:
Meanwhile, Ukraine is struggling with another scourge. The absence of childhood vaccinations is bringing back to the country seemingly forgotten diseases.
Olga Turchaninova reporting from Kiev.
Odessa, Ivano-Frankivsk, Ternopil, Dnieper, Zaporozhye, and now Kiev. Measles reached the capital of Ukraine in a matter of days and is sending people indiscriminately to hospital beds. Nearly 80 people have already gotten infected. Mostly children.
Presumably, the onset of the outbreak and the massive infection of measles occurred here, in the Kiev circus. More than 20 children who fell ill visited the show at the end of December. It turned out that one of the employees was at that time sick with measles and could have spread it.
Little patient’s mother: "She has a temperature of 40 already, it's the 3rd day today, yes, she's vaccinated, she just started to get sick later, the rash didn't begin very intensely."
More than 3,000 people fell ill all over Ukraine. This is 70 times more than on average per year. Odessa region had the most. 6 people died from complications, 4 of them small children. There aren't enough places in hospitals. The authorities banned unvaccinated children from going to kindergartens and schools. But they still can't stop the spread of the virus.
Olga Golubkovskaya, Doctor: "Now the situation with infectious diseases, we must understand, isn't the same as in Europe and the US, we have many more infections. An absolutely different spectrum of infectious diseases. The civilized world has already been rid of many and has never seen them in their lives".
The news of raging measles almost overshadowed news about other dangerous infections in Ukraine. Botulism, from which there's no serum in the country, and hepatitis A. In the Kharkov region and in Nikolaev, nearly 100 people got jaundice. Several in intensive care. In Nikolaev, the cause was determined. The infection could have been in the water, which is poured into containers and sold.
Alexander Ignatenko, Ministry of Health, Nikolaev: "We don't monitor these points, we don't control the quality of their water".
Infections that are considered vaccine-controlled, are obviously, completely out of control in Ukraine. The number of vaccinated people in the country is just over 40%, the level of African countries. There aren't enough vaccines for poliomyelitis and meningitis, and people are refusing to be vaccinated with available vaccines because of poor quality. Those who have money prefer to go on special tours to Europe, to vaccinate themselves and children. Here the visa-free regime was useful:
"I hope he doesn't get sick because this was difficult to organize and expensive".
However, experts believe these epidemics are only the first signs.
Svyatoslav Protas, Ukraine States sanitary-epidemiologic service: "We took what the others didn't want as humanitarian aid, we don't have a national reserve for such drugs, we have money for TV sets, for 40 million hryvna flagpoles, but we don't have the money to create a vaccine and serum reserve".
Failed medical reforms, lack of money, and as a result: rapid population decline. Over the past year, minus 200,000 people, this is without counting those who left the country for a better life. But the US native and now the head of Ukrainian health service, Ulyana Suprun, doesn't see any special problems.
Ulyana Suprun: "No, there is no epidemic".
But the Ukrainian scientists don't share the belief in a bright European future without dangerous infections.
Igor Marichev, Epidemiological institute: "This is rubella, diphtheria is in line: diphtheria vaccine coverage in which including diphtheria-tetanus and pertussis components, vaccinations were about 40%, that is, 60% of the population were not vaccinated".
And these viruses, apparently, will be dealt with after their mass outbreak.
Olga Turchaninova, Alexey Nazarov. From Kiev — Vesti, News of the Week
