In Poland, RIVER-EU has been concentrating on Ukrainian migrants and refugees, communities selected precisely because childhood vaccine uptake, specifically HPV vaccination, was remarkably low. RIVER-EU wanted to understand why and what lessons might be transferable to other settings.
On May 9th, the University of Zielona Gora, the RIVER-EU partner and coordinator, presented the core findings to those who made it happen and will forward them: the experts, the Polish and Ukrainian medical professionals, and the Ukrainian community members, mainly parents of children aged 9-17. This way, Polish RIVER-EU collaborators brought the project’s findings back to the Ukrainian community that inspired them. During this closing event, the research team members shared the core message: “don’t pass them by” when it comes to vaccination.
Professor Maria Ganczak, country coordinator of RIVER-EU, presented the overarching context and three of her team’s studies to the key stakeholders: presidents or executive board members of the Polish Societies of Vaccinology, Virology, Public Health, and Oncologic Gynecology, as well as to the Ukrainian health care professionals.
The meeting was attended by 34 participants, including the Director for Centrum Medyczne “Medyk”, the network of primary care centres where the study was conducted.
There was sincere interest in the factors that changed the initially disturbingly low vaccine uptake in this underserved community, to ultimately reach three times that of the general Polish child population. Experts deliberated on how those lessons might translate elsewhere and what they see as the practical dimension of the 5-year RIVER-EU project. Ukrainian GPs and a health coordinator shared their views on what needs to happen now for the RIVER-EU project’s results to be implemented, what the next step after RIVER-EU should be, and who should take it.
Ukrainian parents shared their thoughts on how important this project was in increasing their knowledge of HPV and HPV vaccination, and to what extent it helped them make an informed decision about vaccinating their child for HPV. They also discussed the strengths and opportunities of this project in the context of Ukrainian migrants and refugees in Poland.
Four lectures were delivered by experts in HPV during the conference:
1. “The latest epidemiological facts about HPV infection and vaccination in Ukraine. Barriers to vaccination” by dr Yana Nyankovska, Regional Hospital in Rzeszow
2. “Cervical cancer and HPV infection – the oncologist’s perspective” by Prof. Andrzej Nowakowski, National Institute of Oncology
3. “Results of studies indicating the effectiveness of HPV vaccines” by Prof. Agnieszka Szuster-Ciesielska, Maria Curie-Skłodowska University in Lublin
4. “How to convince parents who are reluctant to get their children vaccinated against HPV?” by Prof. Ernest Kuchar, Medical University in Warsaw.
The conference was very well delivered. Our Ukrainian collaborators received occasional diplomas and small gifts in recognition of their involvement in the RIVER-EU project.
