vlad.tribnet.com / Issue #166 / Social life / Reading article...

There is an epidemic growing in Primorye. In the April 29 issue of Novosti, Raisa Yefimenko, chief physician of Nakhodka's tuberculosis clinic, was quoted as saying that the rate of the disease increased dramatically in recent years. According to Yefimenko, among teenagers alone, there are twice as many patients as the year before and she estimates about 170 homeless people in Nakhodka have full-blown tuberculosis wander.

A recent report by the World Health Organization noted that tuberculosis, or consumption, is spreading across Russia with considerable speed. Here in Primorye, statistics are even more disconcerting: 96 out of 100,000 people in Primorye are infected with the disease, as compared with 68 of every 100,000 for the entire country. The report estimates now that in Russia there are three million new TB victims; 25,000 of whom will die this year.

The demographics of the disease have changed dramatically in recent years, physicians say. Students contribute to the usual group of the unemployed and low-income families. To date, it is estimated that 50 percent of TB patients are people aged 20 to 39, whereas sick children were a relatively rare occurrence before, according to health officials.

Here in Russia, the contraction of the economy since the beginning of the decade, has led to high unemployment, a lowered living standard among the populace, and has heavily taxed the government social security system. Many experts attribute the resurgence of TB in Russia to this social and economic instability. The instability in turn has led to a decline in nutrition standards, leaving much of the populace suffering from protein deficit resulting in weak immune system.

Here in Primorye, combating the disease has become problematic, with cuts in funding to hospitals and public health services.

"It'll soon have been half year since the personnel of Vladivostok City Tuberculosis Hospital was paid," said Doctor Karachayeva, deputy chief physician at the hospital, in a recent interview with the Zavtra Rossii newspaper. "Our staff consists mostly of women, many of them are raising children alone. The first question the employees ask coming to work is 'what's the word about money?'"

Funds for the hospital's operational needs hasn't come through since last June, according to Karachayeva, and exactly where the funding should come from is disputed, as well.

"The city authorities say we should be funded from the krai budget. The krai has in turn pointed at the city, saying the governor's decree of February 11 of this year mandates that the hospital is covered by the municipal budget and should get funding from there," says Karachayeva.

Insufficient funding at the Vladivostok City Tuberculosis Hospital has also led to a decline in sanitary standards, putting the hospital staff at risk themselves. Some staff members have developed unremediable forms of the disease simply in the course of providing care to TB patients, she says.