Medical and social problems of vaccination of the population in communities under martial law

Every year, more than 15 million people die from infectious diseases worldwide. According to the World Health Organization, 24.7% of adults’ deaths and 63.0% of children’s deaths are caused by infectious diseases and their consequences. In martial law conditions, vaccination is the main effective method of protection against infectious diseases. It is known that in Ukraine about 60 thousand children over 1 year old remained unvaccinated against diphtheria, pertussis and tetanus for the first time; more than 200 thousand children did not receive revaccination. The revaccination plan, which includes more than 1.5 million adults, has also not been implemented. The study of medical and social aspects of population vaccination was conducted in the territory of the Velikonovosilkivska and Kurakhivska territorial communities of the Donetsk region of Ukraine. The implementation of vaccination volumes by health care institutions of these communities was analyzed. As of the end of 2023, the population coverage of 95.0% required to create collective immunity against pertussis, diphtheria and tetanus was not achieved. 81.7% of children in the Kurakhivska and 87.0% of children in the Velikonovosilkivska community were vaccinated. Revaccination of the adult population of the indicated communities against diphtheria and tetanus in 2023 was 21.5% and 41.2%, respectively. It was found that difficulties with the implementation of preventive vaccinations are associated with the mass evacuation of the child population, the supply and storage of immunobiological drugs. Power outages lead to a violation of the "cold chain" of vaccine storage. In addition, some medical institutions have suspended their work due to damage to premises as a result of hosti­lities. There is a lack of mobile teams and vehicles for their work to vaccinate the population of remote villages. Keywords: vaccination coverage, "cold chain", prevention.