The head of the Verkhovna Rada committee on health, Olha Bohomolets, is concerned about the lack of vaccines in Ukraine, including against diphtheria, and proposes that acting Health Minister Ulana Suprun report in parliament on this issue.
“If there is an outbreak of diphtheria in Ukraine, one in two people who get ill will die, because there are only 900 doses of serum that is needed, which will last literally for a few days,” she said at a meeting of the parliament’s conciliatory council of the leaders of factions, committees and groups in Kyiv on Feb.5.
According to Bohomolets, it is necessary to specifically discuss this issue and “hear a report by the Health Ministry and the acting minister.”
She noted that supplies of serums and vital vaccines were not completed in 2016 “and there were zero supplies in 2017.” Bohomolets also recalled that the concerned committee recognized the work of the Health Ministry as unsatisfactory four times.
