Challenges and solutions for refugee vaccination – INSP methodology about refugees

Abstract

Since February 24, when Russia invaded Ukraine, more than 4.5 million people chose to move to areas where they feel safe. Approximately 650,000 refugees passed through Ro­ma­nia. A total of 80,000 chose to stay in our country and 30,000 of them are children. In this context, given the high epi­de­mio­lo­gi­cal risk of communicable diseases, the Ministry of Public Health sent to all public health departments, the Metho­do­lo­gi­cal Guide for monitoring the hygiene conditions in refugee camps, especially targeting counties with border cros­sing-points. The guide contains a series of measures re­gar­ding the on-site hygiene regulations, drinking water supply, wastewater management, waste management, vec­tor control, and the Syndromic Surveillance System do­cu­ment for the detection of communicable diseases related to the influx of people from Ukraine. The document contains case definitions for seven types of syndromes: respiratory, diph­the­ria, eruptive, neurological (meningeal and acute flaccid paralysis), diarrhea and viral hemorrhagic fever. An epi­de­mio­lo­gical triage questionnaire was developed and sent to all medical staff that interact with refugees.