In the wake of Russia’s Feb. 24 invasion of Ukraine, the U.S. Agency for International Development deployed a Disaster Assistance Response Team to coordinate the U.S. government’s humanitarian assistance — as it often does in situations of conflict or disaster.
But the agency’s Bureau for Global Health also put itself on emergency footing with a “rapid response capability” aimed at addressing the health system impacts of Russia’s attack, said Atul Gawande, USAID’s assistant administrator for global health.
“Humanitarian assistance typically focuses on the immediate acute needs: food, shelter, acute medical care ... But when you look at what happened within the first weeks of the war, 90% of the pharmacies closed,” Gawande said, speaking at a Devex event during the 75th World Health Assembly.
The Pro read:
USAID pivots Ukraine health project from COVID-19 to war
A project that was originally designed to help Ukraine's health system respond to COVID-19 will now help the country deal with the health impacts of Russia's war.
“All of the typical logistics operations that allow medicines to get distributed, you know, all of the liability coverage for the companies they usually do that distribution just disappeared so they pulled out of the scene, and so now meds weren't being distributed,” he said.
Those are life-threatening disruptions in a country with 260,000 people living with HIV, 80,000 women expected to give birth during the war, and high levels of drug-resistant tuberculosis.
“So although we've talked about hundreds, perhaps a couple thousand civilian deaths from direct attacks in the war — or worse — it is manyfold that many who are at risk from the health system failures,” Gawande said.
USAID reprogrammed its existing health support to Ukraine — which focused on stopping corruption, ensuring adequate financing for health workers, and making records electronic — to help the Ministry of Health get the country’s health supply chains functioning again. Now 80% of Ukraine’s pharmacies are open with medical supplies moving through, though it is largely humanitarian organizations that are running them, Gawande said.
Gawande said USAID has focused on ensuring hospitals have oxygen supplies, training health workers to respond to potential chemical weapons attacks that could contaminate hospitals, and hardening electronic health systems against increasing cyberattacks.
“I'm increasingly convinced this is a different kind of skill set from what ordinary humanitarian assistance requires,” Gawande said.
“You're only as good as your existing health system and your health workers, but enabling them and having teams who understand what their needs are and helping a government or local NGOs maintain resilience of the health system in the face of these attacks, I think is critical,” he said.
About the author
Michael Igoe@AlterIgoe
Michael Igoe is a Senior Reporter with Devex, based in Washington, D.C. He covers U.S. foreign aid, global health, climate change, and development finance. Prior to joining Devex, Michael researched water management and climate change adaptation in post-Soviet Central Asia, where he also wrote for EurasiaNet. Michael earned his bachelor's degree from Bowdoin College, where he majored in Russian, and his master’s degree from the University of Montana, where he studied international conservation and development.
