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Maleficent Comrades: War in Ukraine and COVID-19

Part of: Ukraine collection

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 October 2022

Alpo Vuorio Open the ORCID record for Alpo Vuorio [Opens in a new window] ,
Antti Sajantila ,
Petri T. Kovanen  and
Bruce Budowle
Alpo Vuorio*
Affiliation:
Department of Forensic Medicine, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland Mehiläinen Airport Health Centre, Vantaa, Finland
Antti Sajantila
Affiliation:
Department of Forensic Medicine, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland Forensic Medicine Unit, Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare, Helsinki, Finland
Petri T. Kovanen
Affiliation:
Wihuri Research Institute, Helsinki, Finland
Bruce Budowle
Affiliation:
Department of Forensic Medicine, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland
*
Corresponding author: Alpo Vuorio, Email: [email protected].
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Abstract

Infectious diseases and war are maleficent comrades. This reality applies equally well to the war in Ukraine and the current coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. Europe is facing a huge refugee crisis and potentially the conflict could worsen the COVID-19 pandemic. Initially, 2 major countries of concern are Poland, which has taken the majority of refugees, and Moldova, which has taken a very large number of refugees on a per capita basis. However, the concern extends to the rest of Europe because of the mobility of refugees beyond the first country they enter. Vaccinating, infection control, and boosting refugees should be a priority. However, complete prevention of COVID-19 is very complex because of other issues related to the success of prevention.

Keywords

COVID-19warrefugeesUkrainepandemicinfectious diseases
Type
Policy Analysis
Information
Disaster Medicine and Public Health Preparedness , Volume 17 , 2023 , e280
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2022. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of Society for Disaster Medicine and Public Health, Inc.

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