In all of Macedonia, there is not a single vaccine against yellow fever and typhus, nor a malaria prophylaxis
In Macedonia, not a single vaccine against yellow fever, typhus, or malaria prophylaxis can be found in the form of pills. The Ministry of Health has not procured such vaccines for three years, so citizens travel to the neighborhood at their own expense to get vaccinated. In all neighboring countries, these vaccines are regularly procured in quantities that can meet the needs of foreign patients, who are forced into this kind of "vaccine tourism".
The director of the Center for Public Health, Besim Zekiri, confirmed the problem to "Sloboden Pechat".
- Every year we announce a tender, but no company comes forward and participates. It has not been for the last three years. The Ministry of Health has been notified and we are trying to solve the problem. The typhus vaccine is also a problem, and the companies are not calling for it, says director Zekiri.
Citizens who travel to African and some Asian countries where it is necessary to receive such a vaccine before the trip, have the only solution left - to travel to the neighborhood at their own expense and receive these vaccines privately.
- I needed a vaccine against yellow fever, but they told me at the Public Health Center that they don't have it. In Kosovo, I made an appointment, went and immediately received her, and antimalarials. I paid 60 euros and took a day off from work to complete that obligation, says an interlocutor of "Sloboden Pechat" who will travel to Kenya as a tourist, and did not have the opportunity to get vaccinated in Skopje. And when you call the epidemiology department at the Public Health Center in Skopje, they tell you to go to Serbia, Kosovo, Bulgaria or Greece to receive a yellow fever vaccine at one of the state institutes there.
The Ministry of Internal Affairs has announced list of countries which are considered to be countries where there is a risk of infection with tropical and quarantine diseases such as malaria, yellow fever, cholera, etc.
And for some of the high school students who were supposed to receive vaccines before going abroad to study, there were no necessary vaccines last year because the pharmaceutical companies did not respond to the public calls.
