Vaccines In Ukraine

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Introduction In this day and age we have the technology and the scientific evidence to cure many horrific diseases that, in the past, have taken too many innocent lives. In the United States alone we have 18 vaccine preventable diseases. Sadly in many other countries these vaccines are unavailable to the children of required age. One of these countries being Ukraine. Ukraine’s poorly financed healthcare system has led to an overall very poor vaccination rate. In August 2016, Unian (2016) found, only 30% of children in the Ukraine were immunized against measles, a mere 10% against hepatitis B, and 3% against diphtheria and tetanus. During this time Ukraine had the lowest routine immunization rate in the world. Ukraine should and can do better …show more content…

According to The Associated Press (2009), it started with the death of a 17-year-old boy who had been given a combined shot for the measles and rubella. Many blame his death on the vaccinations themselves. The authorities said they need to do further investigation and halted the campaign to revaccinate 9 million of Ukrainian children for the measles, this being the leading cause of childhood death. By putting this on hold they are risking the lives of all children, which is based on misleading information about the vaccines side effects. The magnitude of this issue will only continue to grow as the Ukraine sits ignorant to the fact that vaccinating children will save more lives rather than taking …show more content…

As of now the majority are children. Most children are requested to be vaccinated for a wide variety of diseases each year such as, polio, measles, rubella, and diphtheria. This happens to be the case because these Ukrainian parents who are choosing to put off the vaccine are then waiting too long. Most children are required to get specific vaccinations at specific ages. When we put it off these kids become more prone to catching the disease. According to WHO (2015), “In Ukraine, 2 cases of circulating vaccine-derived poliovirus type 1 have been confirmed, with dates of onset paralysis on 30 June and 7 July 2015. One child was 4 years old and the other 10 months old at the time of onset paralysis.” Not only is the outbreak of the disease going to catch up with everyone, but irreversible effect will be caused to those who catch the disease. You can only imagine what the parents of these children are now going through. Knowing that their kids may never live a full and pleasurable life because of these obstacles they have run into, all of which we will further be prevented by getting the correct information about vaccinations out to these Ukrainian

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