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 Their doctor at Kyiv's National Cancer Institute called them and
advised them to turn around and go home for their own safety. It
soon dawned on the family that the only option was to continue
Alinka's treatment abroad.
"We decided (this) without hesitation, because this is not only a
war with our occupiers, but also a war for the life of our child,"
said Katya, who did not give her surname.
She and her daughter are now in Warsaw, Poland, awaiting more
treatment for Alinka, whose condition is stable.
They are among more than one million people who have fled to Poland
from Ukraine to escape the escalating war. Another 700,000 have gone
to neighbouring countries like Romania and Moldova. Four million
people may ultimately flee, the United Nations has estimated.
The World Health Organization (WHO) is warning that the exodus
raises the spectre of a regional health catastrophe on top of the
huge toll in death and destruction from the fighting in Ukraine.
"(It's) not confined to one or two countries, but really regionally,
and globally," WHO Europe director Hans Kluge told Reuters in an
interview late last week.
BREAKING POINT
In wartime, healthcare crises - a lack of access to hospitals and
treatment, outbreaks of disease, malnutrition and the like - often
kill far more people than bombs and bullets.
In Ukraine, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said last week,
there have been Russian strikes on hospitals, schools and homes.
Critical drug shortages have arisen and neonatal wards have been
moved underground to shelter from bombing. Russia denies targeting
civilian infrastructure.
The fear now is that the refugee influx into neighbouring countries
will push their health systems over the edge too.
The WHO's Kluge said health services in Poland, Slovakia, Romania
and Moldova were coping so far. "But this is as of today. We have
seen in the past that health systems have a breaking point, and the
situation is very unpredictable."
Those bearing the brunt of refugee arrivals fear that the breaking
point is close, pointing out that the numbers of beds and doctors
cannot double overnight, particularly in healthcare systems already
exhausted by two years of COVID-19.
"We can announce that we will treat all Ukrainian children, but I am
afraid it is simply unrealistic. We will provide the best possible
help, but we cannot work miracles," said Ernest Kuchar, head of
paediatrics at the Medical University of Warsaw hospital.
The Polish Health Ministry said its hospitals have the capacity to
treat around 7,000 patients from Ukraine.
LONGER-TERM CHALLENGE
Up to one million new potential patients would overwhelm any
country's health system, according to Kate White, emergency
programme manager for the aid group Medecins Sans Frontieres
(Doctors Without Borders).
For the short term, international humanitarian agencies, national
governments and volunteers are scrambling to send trauma kits,
emergency medications and ambulances to border crossing points with
Ukraine.
As yet there are no field hospitals on the Hungarian, Polish Slovak
or Moldovan borders, the U.N. refugee agency confirmed.
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 The European Union, which has granted Ukrainian
refugees temporary residence rights - which
includes access to medical care, is also working
to help member state Poland, and White said the
EU's standardised regulatory environment could
make shipping emergency supplies to the country
quicker.
Some refugees are also reaching EU member states
further west: for example, Germany has
registered 50,000.
But all partners involved in the relief efforts
said it was longer-term or chronic needs, often
among patients arriving without documentation,
medication or the ability to speak the local
language, that could prove the biggest
challenge.
These include treating people like Alinka, as
well as those with other diseases including
diabetes, HIV and tuberculosis. Ukraine, a
country of 44 million, has 2.3 million people
with diabetes, 250,000 people living with HIV
and around 160,000 cancer patients, according to
the latest WHO estimates.
Alongside trauma injuries, the WHO has classed
dealing with some of these conditions as its
highest priority in its most recent report on
the health impact of the Russian invasion.
https://www.humanitarianresponse.info/
sites/
www.humanitarianresponse.info/files/
documents/files/ukraine-phsa-shortform-030322.pdf
Diabetes, COVID-19 and other infectious
diseases, and cardiovascular and respiratory
conditions are all marked "red", meaning that
without attention there is a real risk of "high
levels of morbidity of mortality" from the
impact of the war on healthcare, the assessment
reads.
In Warsaw, Kuchar said, almost every refugee
child arriving at his hospital has tested
positive for COVID-19, probably due to the
cramped conditions in which they fled Ukraine,
where new coronavirus cases were averaging
around 27,000 a day pre-war with only 35% of the
population vaccinated.
MENTAL HEALTH
Mental health is also red on the WHO's list, as
refugees cope with unthinkable trauma.
Katya, in Warsaw, understands that. She broke
down as she explained the arduous 24-hour
journey she made with her sick daughter to reach
the Polish capital.
Her husband and three other children remain in
Ukraine, and she is desperately worried for
them, as well as about how Alinka will recover
from the trip and get the treatment she needs.
Katya said that what has happened to Ukraine in
recent weeks is hard enough for a healthy adult
to cope with, but the pressure on a sick child
is unthinkable.
"You have to hold on," she said.
(Reporting by Anna Koper and Jennifer Rigby with
additional reporting by Kacper Pempel in Warsaw
and Olga Vyshnevska in Gdansk, Poland; editing
by Michele Gershberg and Mark Heinrich)
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