The ongoing pandemic disaster of coronavirus erupted with the first confirmed cases in Wuhan, China, in December 2019, caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV2) novel coronavirus, the disease referred to as coronavirus disease 2019, or COVID-19. The World Health Organization (WHO) confirmed the outbreak and determined it a global pandemic. The current pandemic has infected nearly 300 million people and killed over 3 million. The current COVID-19 pandemic is smashing every public health barrier, guardrail, and safety measure in underdeveloped and the most developed countries alike, with peaks and troughs across time. Greatly impacted are those regions experiencing conflict and war. Morbidity and mortality increase logarithmically for those communities at risk and that lack the ability to promote basic preventative measures. States around the globe struggle to unify responses, make gains on preparedness levels, identify and symptomatically treat positive cases, and labs across the globe frantically rollout various vaccines and effective surveillance and therapeutic mechanisms. The incidence and prevalence of COVID-19 may continue to increase globally as no unified disaster response is manifested and disinformation spreads. During this failure in response, virus variants are erupting at a dizzying pace. Ungoverned spaces where nonstate actors predominate and active war zones may become the next epicenter for COVID-19 fatality rates. As the incidence rates continue to rise, hospitals in North America and Europe exceed surge capacity, and immunity post infection struggles to be adequately described. The global threat in previously high-quality, robust infrastructure health-care systems in the most developed economies are failing the challenge posed by COVID-19; how will less-developed economies and those health-care infrastructures that are destroyed by war and conflict fare until adequate vaccine penetrance in these communities or adequate treatment are established? Ukraine and other states in the Black Sea Region are under threat and are exposed to armed Russian aggression against territorial sovereignty daily. Ukraine, where Russia has been waging war since 2014, faces this specific dual threat: disaster response to violence and a deadly infectious disease. To best serve biosurveillance, aid in pandemic disaster response, and bolster health security in Europe, across the North Atlantic Treaty Alliance (NATO) and Black Sea regions, increased NATO integration, across Ukraine’s disaster response structures within the Ministries of Health, Defense, and Interior must be reinforced and expanded to mitigate the COVID-19 disaster.

Solutions of N-chlorotaurine (NCT) are effective microbiocidal agents with a broad spectrum of pharmacological activity and outstanding tolerability. The main problem limiting their medical use is their instability, which is generally inherent in solutions of all chlorine-active compounds. In this work, we developed a new synthetic approach to the synthesis of such solutions, which consists in the activation of granular and fibrous polymeric materials with immobilized N-chlorosulfonamide groups, which act here as a chlorinating agent. It was shown that when such polymers are added to taurine solutions, NCT solutions with a chemical composition suitable for immediate medical use can be obtained. The stability of such solutions under various conditions was analyzed in comparison with NCTs obtained by the classical method from sodium hypochlorite. It was confirmed that the process of decomposition of all studied solutions obeys the kinetic laws of the first-order reaction. It was proven that solutions obtained from granular polymers are more stable both in terms of active chlorine concentration and in terms of pH, and their additional buffering is not needed. The stability of solutions decreases when they are stored in the presence of polymers used, with an increase in the excess of taurine and with acidification. The high sensitivity of all obtained solutions to UV radiation was also noted. The antimicrobial properties of NCT solutions obtained from polymers are not inferior to those obtained from sodium hypochlorite at the same concentration of active chlorine. Considering the stability and compactness of the initial chlorine-active polymers, as well as the possibility of their multiple regeneration, the developed method can form the basis of the technology for obtaining multifunctional NCT solutions for medical purposes with the desired physical and chemical properties without using special equipment or specific reagents.

A method has been developed for the synthesis of granular polymeric materials with immobilized N-chloro-sulfonamide groups. Commercially available resin polymers widely applied for the preparation of ion exchangers have been used as polymer carriers. The elaborated technological conditions make it possible to modify these resins with a high conversion degree, without deteriorating the strength characteristics, and with the possibility of regulating the concentration of active chlorine over a wide range (up to 11 % w/w). The structure of the synthesized polymers was confirmed by IR spectroscopy data. To determine the concentration of functional groups, a special method of iodometric titration has been developed. The processes of emission of active chlorine from synthesized polymers into aqueous solutions have been studied. It has been shown that this process significantly depends on the composition of the solution: no release of active chlorine into distilled water is observed, and when using tap water, its concentration is reached 5–8 mg/dm3 and remains up to 30 days when the granules are in water. The processes of activation of active chlorine emission by compounds of amine nature have been studied, the corresponding kinetic curves of the dependence between change in the concentration of active chlorine in solution and the used activator are presented. It has been found that the nature of the used activator strongly affects, among other things, the stability of the obtained chlorine-active solutions. Taurine and sulfamic acid are found to be the optimal activators for obtaining stable solutions of active chlorine of high concentration. The composition of the N-chloro-taurin solution obtained in this way has been additionally analyzed by UV spectroscopy. Thus, the synthesized polymers make it possible to quickly in situ obtain high-purity solutions of active chlorine without the use of special electrochemical equipment. The polymers themselves are compact, stable, and can be repeatedly regenerated

Virucidal properties of N-chlorosulfonamides immobilized on fibrous styrene-divinylbenzene copolymers have been studied. Corresponding materials with different functional group structures and chlorine content have been synthesized on FIBAN polymer carriers in the form of staple fibers and non-woven fabrics. The study has been conducted in general accordance with EN 14476 standard on poliovirus type-1 and adenovirus type-5. It has been found that all tested samples exhibit pronounced virucidal activity: regardless of the carrier polymer form, sodium N-chlorosulfonamides inactivated both viruses in less than 30 s, and N,N-dichlorosulfonamides—in 30–60 s. The main mechanism of action of these materials, obviously, consists in the emission of active chlorine from the functional group into the treated medium under the action of the amino groups of virus fragments and cell culture. Considering the previously described antimicrobial and reparative properties of such materials, as well as their satisfactory physical and mechanical properties, the synthesized polymers are promising for the creation of medical devices with increased resistance to microbial contamination, such as protective masks, filter elements, long-acting wound dressings, and others.

The aim of the work was to evaluate the antimicrobial activity of polymeric materials with immobilized N-Chlorosulfonamide groups against multidrug-resistant hospital strains of common microorganisms and to determine the resistance to microbial penetration of these materials. Materials and methods: the studied samples were copolymers of styrene with divinylbenzene in the form of staple fibre and non-woven fabric with immobilized N-Chlorosulfonamide groups of various structures. Hospital strains of microorganisms have been isolated from clinical material; their antibiotic sensitivity has been determined by the Kirby-Bauer method. The agar diffusion method determines the antimicrobial activity of the polymers. Resistance to microbial penetration of samples of non-woven fabric has been determined by the membrane filtration method. Results: polymer samples have been synthesized with immobilized N-Chlorosulfonamide groups in the Na- and H-forms, and with the N, N-dichlorosulfonamide group, with chlorine concentration range 3.7 - 12.5 %. All samples demonstrated pronounced antimicrobial activity against both standard and hospital strains. Due to the higher specific surface area, staple fibre is generally more efficient. An increase in the zone of inhibition of the growth of microorganisms was observed with an increase in the concentration of immobilized chlorine. All the studied fabric samples are impermeable to S. aureus. The control samples containing the free sulfonamide group did not show antimicrobial properties. Conclusions: synthesized chlorine-active polymers have a pronounced antimicrobial activity against multidrug-resistant microorganisms, demonstrate high resistance to microbial penetration and therefore are promising for creating a wide range of medical products on their basis: dressings, protective masks, antimicrobial filters, etc.

Objectives: To better understand the source and potential transmission routes of antibiotic-resistant bacteria infecting injured service members in Ukraine. Methods: Phenotypic and genomic characterizations were performed on 11 Gram-negative pathogens cultured from war wounds at an intermediate evacuation hospital in Dnipro. Results: The analysis revealed both susceptible and extensively drug-resistant strains present in cultures, including high-risk global clones carrying carbapenemases. Conclusions: Globally distributed carbapenemase-producing lineages are being acquired early in the medical evacuation process.