Establishing an EU-compliant diagnostic facility for infectious diseases under war conditions in Poltava, Ukraine

Russia's invasion has systematically destroyed Ukrainian healthcare infrastructure while simultaneously increasing infectious disease risks through wounded combatants and civilians, people displacement, and disrupted care. Poltava, a central region hosting over 200,000 internally displaced persons, already faced pre-war infectious disease incidences higher than the national average, yet diagnostics relied mostly on low-sensitivity rapid tests. Through a German-Ukrainian hospital partnership funded by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit, we established EU-compliant infectious disease serology (ELFA) and automated PCR, as well as an automated bacterial identification system with antibiotic susceptibility testing in Poltava's Regional Clinical Infectious Diseases Hospital. Key elements of the partnership included participatory equipment selection, intensive hands-on training of Ukrainian staff in Germany, joint standard operating procedures, and adaptive reagent supply. Between March 2024 and June 2025, the laboratories in Poltava performed 16,633 tests, detecting previously unrecognized HIV, Hepatitis B and C, Lyme disease, Toxoplasmosis, and antibiotic-resistant bacterial infections. This project demonstrates that advanced diagnostic capacities can be established under war conditions when partnership design prioritizes easy and strait forward solutions, shared decision-making, and contingency planning. The prototypical establishment of powerful serological and molecular diagnostics in infectious diseases through this German-Ukrainian partnership may serve as a model for the implementation in other regions of the Ukraine. Even under the difficult conditions of war, this advancement in infectious disease diagnostics allows for more targeted patient care and contributes to the prevention of pathogen transmission in the Ukraine.