Emergency in Ukraine - WHO Situation Report #2

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Sunday, 13 March 2022

WHO Situation Report #2 on the Ukraine emergency

The WHO Situation Report #2 on the Ukraine emergency, published 11 March 2022: reporting period: 4–11 March 2022. World Health Organization. Regional Office for Europe.

Priority public health concerns

• Conflict related trauma and injuries exacerbated due to increasing intensity of violence and by lack of access to health facilities by patients and health staff due to insecurity and difficulties for safe access to lifesaving medicine and supplies.

• Risk of excess illness and death from noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes mellitus and cancer due to a disruption in medical supply lines and health services.

• Risk of emergence and spread of infectious diseases such as measles, polio, COVID-19 and other respiratory infections, tuberculosis (TB), HIV and diarrheal diseases due to widespread destruction of water and sanitation infrastructure, inadequate vaccination coverage, lack of access to medicines and medical care, population movements and over-crowding.

• Risk of mental health and psychosocial health deterioration due to significant stress from acute conflict in addition to two years of living with COVID-19.

• Protection issues: risk of human trafficking exacerbated by an increasingly vulnerable situation for refugee populations, particularly for unaccompanied children and young people, and lack of resource management or follow-up within surrounding countries.

• Escalated risk of gender-based violence as women, children and the elderly travel and stay in reception centers, apartments and houses alone or with volunteer families.

• Risk to maternal health due to lack of access to obstetric care will increase the risk of maternal and neonatal morbidity and mortality. It is expected that 80 000 women will give birth in Ukraine in the next three months.

WHO Actions

• Coordinating the health response in support of the MoH in Ukraine and surrounding countries; • Monitoring technological and environmental hazards, and industrial sites affected by the conflict;

• Conducting public health risk assessments, and health facility and service assessments; • Scaling-up surveillance and health information to detect and respond to outbreaks early and to better understand health needs, health threats, and the functionality and availability of health services;

• Providing WHO technical support and surge staff to manage the priority health concerns as well as mobilizing partners through EMTs, the Global Outbreak Alert and Response Network (GOARN) and the Global Health Cluster, among others;

• Providing health supplies and logistics capacity to deliver medicines, diagnostics, as well as trauma and preventive supplies;

• Provision of vaccines and supporting vaccination campaigns against vaccine-preventable diseases, such as measles and polio, to surrounding countries.​​​​​​​

Further information:

Media contacts:

WHO EURO: eupress@who.int
WHO HQ: mediainquiries@who.int

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