A year into the Russia invasion of Ukraine, vaccination both routine and for covid-19 is one of the casualties. Nataliia Bushkovska meets the doctors trying increase uptake
In Ukraine, vaccination has always been challenging. In 2016, the country had the lowest routine immunisation rate in the world, according to Unicef.1
Data from the country’s ministry of health showed that just 44% of children under 18 months of age were fully immunised against polio. Only 30% of children up to the age of 6 were fully immunised against measles, 10% against hepatitis B, and 3% against diphtheria, pertussis, and tetanus. (For comparison, the average European Union rates in 2021 were over 95%).
Ukraine has long struggled not for vaccine access but for uptake, in large part because of a lack of trust in the government and the healthcare system that stems from Soviet times. “The health system was highly centralised. The main condition for a successful career was loyalty to the Soviet party and sen