At the end of March 2022, the German Health Ministers’ Conference dealt with the topic of “vaccinations and medical care for Ukrainian refugees,” due to seemingly large vaccination gaps among the Ukrainian population and the circumstances under which refugees often initially live – many people in a small space with comparatively poor hygienic conditions. These factors increase the risk of the spread of various infectious diseases such as COVID-19, but also, for example, measles or tuberculosis.
The situation in Poland is even more acute. So far, the country has taken in the majority of those who have fled and they too are faced with the risk of increased infection rates. Diagnostic laboratories therefore expect an increased demand for corresponding laboratory analyzes to detect possible diseases. But these can be expensive and someone has to pay for the costs of medical care.
In order to help, the Polish EUROIMMUN subsidiary has started a fundraising campaign to collect and donate sets of various diagnostic tests to laboratories and reference institutes in the country, which can then be used for free examinations of refugees from Ukraine.
EUROIMMUN in Germany contributed test kits for the diagnostics of tuberculosis in March while EUROIMMUN Poland provided ELISA tests for the diagnostics of measles infections.
Oxford Immunotec also responded to the call for donations by making available free test kits of its tuberculosis test T-SPOT.TB and devices for automated processing of the tests via EUROIMMUN Poland.