Project Ask the Doctor of the Rinat Akhmetov Foundation: Epidemiologist Explained Who Will Not Be Affected by COVID-19

An epidemiologist in the project Ask the Doctor explained who can avoid being infected with the coronavirus and how immunity to the disease forms. In a live broadcast, Lyudmyla Mukharska, the chair of the board at the Ukrainian Sanitary and Epidemiological Union NGO, which is an All-Ukrainian Union of NGOs, and the Honoured Doctor of Ukraine, answered some questions from viewers who are preparing for vaccination and want to protect their health.

In particular, the doctor explained that people who suffered from more severe forms of COVID-19 are protected from re-infection for quite a long time.

‘Those who had a complicated course of the disease normally have a greater number of antibodies to the virus, but this is quite individual. I am an example of this because 3 months ago, I had a worse form of the disease than my husband, and fewer antibodies were found in his body. Today their number has leveled off for both of us, but there is still protection in place. For those who want to understand the situation it is worth doing the tests for antibodies,’ said Ms. Mukharska.

According to the expert, scientists have not yet determined for how many months the vaccination protects an individual from COVID-19, but viewers who have elderly parents, even those at the age of 90+, were advised to immediately sign them up for the vaccination such as those who belong to the priority group. Speaking about the vaccination of children against COVID-19, the doctor said that it was not yet time.

‘Not a single vaccine approved for use in healthcare practice has passed the third phase of research on children, but if vaccine manufacturers continue these studies, there may be vaccinations [of children] at a later stage.’

The guest of the project Ask the Doctor advised not to bring down the fever in case of a viral disease unless the body temperature rises higher than 38 degrees, because it is under this condition that antibodies are produced and the body's immune defense appears. She also explained how to use antiseptics correctly so that they really work.

‘The virus does not live long on hands and surfaces, but in order to make disinfection, the procedure should be done correctly. If you take an antiseptic spray and just sprinkle it on your hand, there is no guarantee that the virus will die. You should pour 3 millilitres of antiseptic liquid into your palm and wipe your hands for 30-40 seconds, performing 6 movements. In a similar way, surgeons treat their hands before entering the operating room.’

Lyudmyla Mukharska is the seventeenth expert of the project Ask the Doctor. Earlier, the topics of COVID-19 treatment and prevention were also covered by Iurii Kuchyn, a Doctor of Medical Sciences, a professor and the Rector of Bogomolets National Medical University; Borys Todurov, a cardiac surgeon, a professor and the Director of the Heart Institute; Alla Myronenko, a Doctor of Medical Sciences, the Head of the Department of Respiratory and Other Viral Infections at L.V. Gromashevsky Institute of Epidemiology and Infectious Diseases, and other leading experts.

‘More than three and a half million people have watched the project Ask the Doctor, and the interest towards online meetings with the country's leading doctors keeps growing. Many highly reputable healthcare professionals: anaesthesiologists, epidemiologists, therapists and pediatricians, joined the initiative in the role of experts. During the four months of the project, they spoke in detail about the symptoms of the coronavirus, methods of treating this disease and post-Covid rehabilitation,’ says Yuliia Yershova, Chief Communications Officer of the Rinat Akhmetov Foundation.

The online project Ask the Doctor is being implemented within the framework of the program Rinat Akhmetov ‒ Saving Lives. Live broadcasts are available on the Rinat Akhmetov Foundation's Facebook page, as well as on the YouTube channel. During live broadcasts, leading healthcare professionals talk about the key aspects in the prevention of COVID-19. The program Rinat Akhmetov – Saving Lives is implementing an extremely important project Fighting COVID-19 in Ukraine. It is the largest, most systematic and widest scale private initiative aimed at helping public healthcare facilities in the fight against the coronavirus. Within the framework of the project, the Foundation donated more than 200,000 units of personal protective equipment and consumables, 337,000 rapid COVID-19 tests and more than 200 ultra-modern lung ventilators.