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Almost 3 million refugees have crossed the Polish border since the beginning of Our Country’s invasion of Ukraine. Most of them are women and children. Staying in cellars and shelters and traveling for many hours to the border point exhausts the body, especially of the child. The youngest go to Polish hospitals with diseases that are already very developed. The pediatrician, lek. Lidia Stopyra, head of the Department of Infectious Diseases and Paediatrics at Szpital Specjalistyczny im. Stefan Żeromski in Krakow.
- According to the doctor’s account, children who go to hospitals suffer from people who can be successfully and quickly treated when the therapy is implemented quickly. However, in small refugees the diseases took longer to develop, because a long time passed from the first symptoms to the diagnosis in the hospital
- «These children straight from the war often spent weeks in a cramped cellar, in damp, dirty dirt, next to decaying corpses, rodents. This means exposure to infections that we do not deal with on a daily basis »explains the drug. Lidia Stopyra
- The expert assures that so far no case of diseases that everyone is afraid of returning has been diagnosed, including polio
- More information can be found on the Onet homepage
Ukrainian children get more ill because of the war
«Refugee children come to us in very advanced stages of diseases, e.g. with large infiltrates in the lungs»- told PAP doctor Lidia Stopyra from the hospital. Żeromski in Krakow. She also asked, inter alia, remark that if a case of polio appeared in Poland, it would be an absolute alert.
As emphasized by the pediatrician and infectious diseases specialist, the degree of disease advancement in Ukrainian children results from the circumstances of the war. «While escaping from the bombs, weakened, under unimaginable stress, they get sick more severely»- she explained. “Usually, we do not see such advanced diseases, because sick children go to treatment much earlier” – she added.
Department of Infectious Diseases and Paediatrics at the Hospital. Stefan Żeromski in Krakow also extends diagnostics to rare diseases. «These children straight from the war often spent weeks in a cramped cellar, in damp, dirt, next to decaying corpses, rodents. This means exposure to infections that we do not deal with on a daily basis»- noted Lidia Stopyra, head of this department.
The rest of the text below the video.
As she pointed out, in the hospital in Krakow, there have been no cases of vaccine-preventable diseases among refugee children. There was one patient suspected of measles, but the examination ruled out the disease. There was no polio, pertussis, tuberculosis.
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While whooping cough and tuberculosis appear among young patients from time to time, polio has not been around for years and if this disease was detected in Poland now, the doctor noted that “there would be an absolute alert”.
What is polio and how can I protect myself against it?
As Lidia Stopyra emphasized, the program of polio eradication, which is the complete elimination of this dangerous disease, is underway in the world, sponsored by the WHO. In 2002, the European region was declared wild-type polio virus free. The disease, also known as Heine-Medin disease, caused by this virus, is extremely dangerous, with high mortality and disability. The virus attacks the nervous system, paralysis and brain damage. Vaccination has managed to eradicate it, but two cases of polio have recently been reported in Ukraine.
«Vaccinations protect us, but the anti-vaccination movement, which has spread in recent years, by spreading false information about vaccinations, has unfortunately caused we have unvaccinated children and are therefore susceptible to infection. And these children are at risk if polio occurs in Poland » Said the pediatrician and infectious disease specialist.
- We are threatened by epidemics of forgotten diseases? “We must make everyone aware of the importance of vaccination”
She also recalled the results of research carried out in Ukraine just before the war. They revealed that the implementation of the preventive vaccination program in 34-year-olds is at the level of approx. XNUMX percent. «In practice, however, we see that most of the Ukrainian children who come to us are vaccinated»Added the doctor.
Director of the hospital Żeromski, the doctor Jerzy Friediger condemned the anti-vaccination movements. “As in the rest of the world – there will always be someone who will deny the achievements of science” – he noted.
He also expressed concern that forgotten diseases would return if the anti-vaccine movement grew stronger. “We have control of infectious diseases, but if vaccination coverage decreases, there is a fear that these diseases will come back. There are infectious diseases in Ukraine, forgotten in Poland, ”the director told PAP.
Among the people who escaped from the war in Ukraine, refugee children constitute the largest number of patients in Krakow hospitals. Ukrainian children have the right to be vaccinated in Poland (PAP)
- How to enroll a child from Ukraine for vaccination? [WE EXPLAIN]
Author: Beata Kołodziej
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