Without any New Year’s breaks, we continue to realize the project "Improving the Protection of Children in Emergencies in Ukraine by Providing Safe Shelters, Food and Non-Food Items, and Psychosocial Support", which the Medical Aid Committee in Zakarpattya is implementing with the support of "terre des hommes Deutschland e.V." and funding from the Federal Foreign Office of Germany.

As part of the medical component of the project, we provided the children’s clinic (consultation) of the St. Martin’s Hospital of the Mukachevo City Council with a modern spirometer that will help diagnose the conditions of young patients with respiratory diseases.

"During 2023, our medical institution received more than 2000 visits from children with respiratory diseases, a large proportion of them with bronchial obstructive syndrome. And here the study of external respiratory function plays a key role. It allows to verify the clinical diagnosis, plan optimal treatment regimens, and to some extent predict the course of the pathological process... The study of ventilatory function of the lungs is carried out using the method of spirometry (determination of the external respiratory function), which is currently considered the "gold standard" in the examination of patients with obstructive pathology of the respiratory system. That is why the new equipment – Spirobank II spirometer with pulse oximetry module – is an important aid both for qualified medical care and for the patient’s further recovery", says Olena Smochko, a pediatric pulmonologist at the children’s clinic of the St. Martin’s Hospital.

Competent assistance to medical and social institutions in Ukraine is what the Medical Aid Committee in Zakarpattya has been doing for almost 24 years. Additional opportunities gained through the implementation of a large project with the support of partners from Germany allow us to respond more quickly to urgent requests from doctors and hospitals, whose workload has increased significantly since the full-scale russian invasion. In six months, the project has helped us to support medical institutions in Rakhiv and Uzhhorod in Zakarpattia, Chernihiv, Zhytomyr, Ivano-Frankivsk, Kherson, and Donetsk regions. We continue at the same pace!