Refugees from ukraine in the pandemic context: the approach of a Public Health Unit in Tuscany, Italy

Background and Objective: In the last year, the conflict in ukraine has caused the arrival in Italy of more than 150.000 refugees. The tuscany region provided to verify the refugees general vaccination status, particularly for covid-19, through the prevention departments. The public health unit of zona valdichiana senese – ausl toscana sud est dedicated specific outpatient sessions to this mission. Refugees were invited via active call in collaboration with stakeholders. Vaccinations were offered for free according to the italian health system. Missing vaccinations were proposed and carried out after anamnesis and collection of informed consent. Cultural mediators took part in the sessions and guaranteed the service. The aim of our study was to assess the PRE – post intervention vaccination status of refugees of the zona valdichiana senese – ausl toscana sud est. Methods: This descriptive study was conducted by collecting reports from stakeholders relating to arrivals from ukraine (299 refugees) in the asl tse zona valdichiana senese territory from 20 february 2022 to 13 april 2022. The extraction query was processed using ms excel software. We analyzed the id code, age, vaccination status and vaccines carried out (date of vaccination, type of vaccines). A descriptive analysis was therefore carried out on which vaccines were administered. Results: During the study period, 70/299 refugees (23,4%) were managed by our unit. 52/70 (74,3%) have had at least one dose of the covid vaccine, 20 of which were booster. 19/70 had other vaccines, of which 7 for a,w,yc-meningitis, 5 for chickenpox, 4 for pneumococcus, 4 for b-hepatitis. Conclusion: Although the number of reports is relatively modest, this work highlights that every initiative of public health is fundamental to improve the protection against infectious diseases vaccination and to ensure continuity and free health care access for migrants.