TNMU Partners Support Ukraine and Ukrainians

For a month, Ukraine has been fighting bravely against the Russian invaders, who have started a terrible, devastating war against our country. Cruelty, immorality, gross violations of human rights, military agreements and conventions by the Russian military shocked many people around the world. Ternopil National Medical University receives support from everywhere. We would like to show gratitude to our longtime partners: Sudhir and Jyotsna Shah, the heads of laboratories IGeneX Inc. and ID-FISH Technology Inc. (Milpitas, USA), who transferred $10,000 to the charity accounts of the TNMU Volunteer Centre.

“These are the foremost US laboratories for the diagnosis of Lyme disease and other diseases transmitted by tick bites. We have been cooperating with the management and specialists of these institutions since 2016, when we first sent foresters’ serum for identification of the pathogens of Lyme borreliosis. At that time, they studied the serum of 400 foresters and other patients from hospitals of Ternopil. In 2017, we presented a joint report in France at an international conference on the results of the survey. In 2018, Sudhir and Jotsna Shah, the heads of laboratories, visited TNMU and agreement on further scientific cooperation was signed. After that, we constantly send blood serum or biomaterial to these laboratories, where the research was performed for free. When the war in Ukraine started, Sudhir and Jotsna Shah wrote a letter with an initiative to support our people, and later we received a money transfer from them.”

IGeneX Inc. and ID-FISH Technology are foremost US laboratories for study and diagnosis of Lyme borreliosis and other tick-borne infections. It is one of the most common infections in the United States and Europe. In the United States only, about 300,000 patients are registered each year, and in Europe – up to 85,000. The incidence in various European countries ranges from 9-10 cases per 100,000 population (Poland, Belarus) to 35 (Lithuania), 100 or more (Slovenia).

Our cooperation began in 2016 with the study of the problem of Lyme borreliosis in forestry workers of Ternopil region. At the initiative of the staff of these laboratories, more than 400 people in this risk group were tested for free for specific antibodies to the pathogens of Lyme borreliosis and B. miyomatoi, which is one of the pathogens of febrile borreliosis. The results of joint research are highlighted in the speeches of scientists from the Department of Infectious Diseases of TNMU and laboratory staff at international conferences in France (Paris, 2017) and the United States (Boston, 2017; Chicago, 2019).

We truly appreciate the assistance of IGeneX Inc. and ID-FISH Technology. Your support is a great support in Ukraine’s victory in this war!