Serum from botulism is absent in Ukraine. The director of the Public Health Center of the Ministry of Health Volodymyr Kurpita said this in an interview with RBK-Ukraina.
According to him, there is completely no possibility of own production of serums from botulism in Ukraine. "There are only several countries where such serums are produced, as this drug is very difficult to produce in constant quality, so it is produced in small batches. In addition, the purchase of serum was never MOH’s task. It has never done that. The serum was always purchased by local authorities for the funds of the regional budgets (as a rule, from Russia). When a conflict with Russia started, we stopped purchasing serums from this country", - Kurpita said.
Also, he noted that in 2018 the Ministry of Health for the first time attributed part of the funds, which are meant for the purchase of medicines, for the purchase of serums ($1.53 million).
Kurpita hopes that the serum from botulism will be delivered to Ukraine in August or September.
As it was previously reported, two young people were hospitalized after eating canned food in Kropyvnytskyi. The patients were diagnosed with botulinum toxin type B.