Nikolai Prodanjuk

Date of Birth: 06.12.1954

Nikolai Georgiyevich Prodanjuk - a scientist in the field of toxicology, hygiene, Doctor of Medical Sciences (1993), Professor, Honored Doctor of Ukraine, Corresponding Member of the National Academy of Medical Sciences of Ukraine, Director of the Institute of Environmental Hygiene and Toxicology named after L. I. Medvedya of the Ministry of Health of Ukraine (since 1994).

Place of Birth. Education. Born in Chernivtsi. In 1978, he graduated from the Chernivtsi State Medical Institute with a degree in 'Medicine'.

Career. From 1978 to 1988, he worked in a scientific-pedagogical capacity at the Chernivtsi State Medical Institute in the Department of Microbiology.

1988-1990 - Director of the Institute of Toxicometry of the Ministry of Health of the USSR (Chernivtsi).

1990-1993 - Director of the Chernivtsi Institute of Medical and Ecological Problems of the Soviet Ministry of Health, later the Ministry of Health of Ukraine.

1993-1994 - Director of the Ukrainian Institute of Social Hygiene and Health Management of the Ministry of Health of Ukraine (Kyiv).

1994-1996 - Director of the Health Institute in Kyiv, named after L. Medvedya.

1997-2008 - Director of the Institute of Environmental Hygiene and Toxicology named after L. Medvedya, Chief Researcher with a work load of 0.5.

Since January 2008 - First Deputy Minister of Health Vasily Knyazevich, Chief State Sanitary Doctor of Ukraine. Dismissed at his own request by Cabinet resolution on May 28, 2008.

Director of the Institute of Environmental Hygiene and Toxicology named after L. Medvedya.

Scandals. Shortly before his resignation, Nikolai Prodanjuk and his deputy Ludmila Mukharskaya were temporarily suspended from their duties while an internal investigation was conducted. The reason was a scandal that arose from a nationwide vaccination campaign for adolescents aged 16 to 29 against measles and rubella, during which a high school student died in the initial phase and about a hundred people were hospitalized.

Already two days after the removal of the health minister, he was arrested. The Prosecutor General's Office opened a criminal case against Nikolai Prodanjuk on suspicion of committing an offense under Art. 3 of the Ukrainian Criminal Code. The reason was an abuse of official powers in approving the import and use of a not properly registered combined vaccine against measles and rubella, manufactured by an Indian producer, which had serious consequences. On June 2, Prodanjuk was released from custody upon signing an obligation to leave Ukraine.

On the eve of a vaccination campaign for nine million young Ukrainians, Nikolai Prodanjuk stated that the vaccine from an Indian producer, purchased with UNICEF funds, is registered, has been checked by the World Health Organization, and meets all requirements of the Ukrainian certification system. Moreover, the preparation has already been successfully used in a number of Western European countries.

Interestingly, Prodanjuk gained notoriety due to a rather controversial statement. On December 11, 2004, at the end of the Orange Revolution, doctors from the Austrian clinic 'Rudolfinerhaus', where the opposition presidential candidate Viktor Yushchenko affected by poisoning was treated, stated that their Ukrainian patient had been poisoned with dioxin (according to the 'allegedly most widespread' version - at the residence of former Deputy Head of the SBU Vladimir Satsyuk, ed.). The toxic substance entered the patient's body about five days before hospitalization. On December 18, Nikolai Prodanjuk, Director of the Institute of Environmental Hygiene and Toxicology named after L. Medvedya, questioned the possibility of poisoning the opposition candidate (as well as anyone else) with dioxin under ordinary household conditions in an interview with Interfax-Ukraine. 'To introduce dioxin to a person, they must be isolated. It is impossible to poison someone with dioxin without harming oneself. If the toxic substance were ingested with food, everyone would have been poisoned by the fumes,' he said. According to the institute director, there are no known cases of artificial dioxin poisoning in world history, and all previous cases were infections through the air over a long period. 'It is not the poison with which they are poisoned,' he emphasized.

Additionally, the expert stated that it is practically impossible to determine the exact time of the intake of the toxic substance into the body based on a single blood test. The toxic expert noted that one could only establish the period of maximum dioxin concentration in the human body by comparing the dynamics based on multiple blood tests taken at different times.

Awards. Doctor of Medical Sciences, Professor, Corresponding Member of the Academy of Medical Sciences of Ukraine. Honored Doctor of Ukraine.

22.11.2023