Inspired by a childhood book, Dr. Katya Gamazina now opens new chapters in Ukrainians’ lives

In a house in the heart of a city in the Soviet Union, a little girl’s hands grip an open book. Her eyes gaze intently at the page, each word drawing her deeper into the narrative. Captivated, she plows through the story: a tale of a boy and a girl who come of age during the early 20th century, surrounded by a deadly diphtheria outbreak. Together, they forge into adulthood and wade into the calamity of the disease to become scientific researchers working to staunch a public health crisis.

It might not be the stuff of most 7-year-olds’ imaginations, but in Dr. Katya Gamazina’s childhood that book was like a beacon pointing her in the right direction. For this precocious child who began reading at age 2, her first read of the novel was life-changing.

“It impressed me so much,” she says. “I wanted from my childhood to work with infectious diseases.”

Work amid a collapsing Soviet Union

Today a communicable diseases specialist and the head of PATH’s Ukraine country program, Katya’s early career declaration was perhaps not so surprising to her family full of medical professionals. Her mother was a nurse, and Katya’s father, grandfather, aunt, and uncles all worked as urban doctors in what was then the Soviet Union. Like the generations before them, Katya and her brothers went to medical school and joined the family trade.

Katya graduated from Kiev Medical Institute in 1987 and started a job as an epidemiologist in Zhytomyr oblast in northern Ukraine, conducting surveillance on infections throughout the territory. The Soviet Union was in the midst of collapse, and the turbulent political and social landscape limited the availability of good transportation. Katya traveled from hospital to hospital tracking outbreaks by whatever means was available: car, bus, train, even an old helicopter. “I even walked,” she says. By the time she arrived at her destination, exhausted by the travel, she sometimes needed more help than the patients she had come to assist, she jokes.

Once at the hospital, Katya would again see the effects of her country’s collapse played out in the public health system. Resources were scarce and standards were compromised. Dozens of guests from a wedding or other event might fall ill from food poisoning, for example, after the food was not properly checked for contaminants.

Though the conditions were challenging for the young doctor, Katya’s experiences continued to reinforce that she chose the right career. She remembers one specific outbreak of staphylococcus aurous, the most common cause of staph infection, in the labor and delivery department of a hospital. At that time, new mothers remained in the hospital with their babies for a week after giving birth. The infection was spreading through the ward, putting the newborns at risk of serious illness and death. Katya, just 26 years old, arrived to investigate and soon found the source of the infection—a midwife was improperly reusing equipment for new mothers and newborns. Katya trained the hospital staff on how to avoid the infection, and the outbreak quickly subsided.

“I was not very experienced,” Katya says now. “But I felt the importance of my work—that it’s not just routine work but it really improves lives.”

Support for breast cancer survivors

That feeling continued for Katya as her work has expanded from tackling localized outbreaks to battling some of Ukraine’s largest public health challenges, including tuberculosis and HIV. But it’s her experience with survivors of breast cancer that touched her most deeply. In 1997, two years after Katya joined PATH, the organization launched a project to improve health care for women with breast cancer, which is the leading cancer among women. At the time, few women in Ukraine were getting early detection for breast cancer, and the health system struggled to provide even basic services. If a woman was sick, her doctor would not inform her of the diagnosis out of a desire to protect her from stress and worry. Women with breast cancer felt frustrated, isolated, and alone.

“I think, how many women’s lives were saved just because of this?”

For Katya, their pain was personal. A decade earlier she had lost a favorite aunt to breast cancer. She knew the toll it could take on a woman and her family.

Katya and her colleagues provided doctors with training and current information on breast cancer. For women suffering from the disease, they offered peer support and sparked the country’s first breast cancer survivor groups. In just a few years, the survivor network spread to 15 cities across the country.

The power of survivor support was immediately evident as women found an outlet for their fears and feelings. One woman confided in Katya that her breast cancer diagnosis had sent her into a deep depression. After attending just one survivor meeting, “I was a new person,” the woman told her.

Today the survivor groups have grown into an independent organization that provides critical moral support for breast cancer survivors around the country. Had it not been for PATH, Katya notes, cancer patients might never have had the opportunity to connect with others in their same shoes. And the quality of life for these women would be very different.

“I think, how many women’s lives were saved just because of this?”

Power of book holds true

Years after a little girl found inspiration inside the pages of a book, Katya still finds excitement and satisfaction in fighting illness and improving lives in her community. In 2006 she became the leader of PATH’s work in Ukraine, and her work now encompasses HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis prevention and treatment, women’s health, vaccine-preventable diseases, and avian influenza preparedness. She leads a staff of 20 to implement projects both in Ukraine and across Eastern Europe, reaching some of the most vulnerable populations, including orphans, inmates, injection drug users, and rural vocational school students.

“Sometimes I feel really proud of my team and of myself,” Katya says.

Led by her guidance and vision, Katya and her team are writing a new chapter for a healthy future in Ukraine.

Photo: PATH/Mike Wang.