Ukraine: The new wave of the epidemic particularly affects children

“It’s hard when your baby suffocates, it scares you,” says Katia Verbina, placing an oxygen mask on her son, who is infected with covid-19, a new wave that is hitting Ukraine hard.

Misa, three months old, has already spent ten days in the pediatric hospital for infectious diseases in Kiev due to pneumonia. His 29-year-old mother has lost seven kilos due to anxiety.

This 100-bed hospital, which is attended by children who have been infected with covid-19, is seeing a large increase in the number of young patients suffering from respiratory problems.

In the spring, “one-third of patients needed oxygen, now two-thirds,” said Vitaly Yetushenko, a 49-year-old epidemiologist.

The new wave of the epidemic, which began in the fall, is due to the corrupted Delta strain of the coronavirus, which is more contagious and, according to doctors, more dangerous for children.

It is also boosted by the low rate of vaccination against covid-19 in Ukraine, one of Europe’s poorest countries, with a collapsing health system.

With 769 deaths, the former Soviet republic was among the three countries with the highest number of deaths on Wednesday, after the United States and Russia.

In this new wave, deaths were also recorded among the patients of the pediatric hospital: two infants and a disabled boy of 8 years. “The treatment did not work,” said Alina Ryazanschich, head of the intensive care unit.

The Ukrainian authorities base their hopes of halting the epidemic on speeding up vaccination.

Hesitation about vaccines

Despite the fact that more and more people are immunized against covid-19, mainly due to restrictions imposed on the unvaccinated, so far only one third of adults in Ukraine have received two doses of the vaccine.

In this context, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky announced on Monday that the vaccinated will receive about 35 euros.

“It is a common practice to respect people,” said Yetushenko, who advocates vaccinating children.

Vaccination of 12- to 17-year-olds with the Pfizer / BioNTech vaccine has been under way in Ukraine for a month now. But so far only 30,000 young people have received at least one dose, according to the health ministry.

Oksana Potapchuk, a 32-year-old beautician vaccinated against covid-19, is in hospital with her 8-year-old son Roman, who is bothered by his oxygen mask and constant blood draws.

Potapchuk says she will not allow her 12-year-old daughter to be vaccinated. “I have not seen any reliable evidence of these vaccines,” he said.

Lilia Gorodchik, her two-year-old son is in intensive care with pleurisy, is among the few Ukrainians who are in favor of vaccines against covid-19. “We will vaccinate him as it seems,” if the vaccine is approved for his age, says the 27-year-old teacher.

Of the 3.3 million cases of covid-19 recorded in Ukraine since the spring of 2020, almost 180,000 are minors, of which 288 were fatal.

To stem the spread of the epidemic among children, the Kiev authorities called for the closure of schools earlier this month, angering many parents.

The doctors, for their part, expressed their satisfaction.

“We are already feeling the effects,” Ryazanschich said, as the intensive care unit currently has only one patient, at a time when all six beds were occupied last week.

Hospital director Tetiana Kaminska is worried about the reopening of the schools, which is scheduled for Monday. “We will see what happens in a week. There will probably be a new upsurge.”

Source: AMPE