Moscow news
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24-Jul-2008
Malaria Threat
Dozens of people acquire malaria infections in Moscow annually due to people who arrive in the city from southern countries. Surprisingly, however, people occasionally get infected from home-grown strains of the disease.
According to a letter by the Federal Service for Supervision in Consumer Rights' Protection and Human Welfare (Rospotrebnadzor) to head of the Federal Tourism Agency, Vladimir Strzhalkovsky, 15 malaria cases were registered in Russia from January to March of this year. The disease came from Africa (predominantly the Congo) and southeastern Asia (mainly India, including the state of Goa).
Last year, 128 incidents of malaria were registered in Russia. Two of the cases proved fatal. The average annual rate is 100 cases, with the bulk of them occurring in Moscow, Moscow Region and St. Petersburg, Rospotrebnadzor stated.
Usually the disease spreads along transport routes. Tourists, for example, travel to tropical countries and completely forget about any preventive measures against diseases, such as inoculation.
For those using tourist agencies, staff usually warn about the threats and give recommendations on how to properly prepare for medical aspects of the trip. Rospotrebnadzor has also posted written rules on its website on how to avoid health problems when traveling abroad.
Less than half of all malaria cases in Russia, however, are caused by guests from tropical countries
Malaria carriers, such as mosquitoes, propagate mainly in small ponds with ditch-water rich in vegetation. Reservoirs make fertile breeding grounds. As a result, Rospotrebnadzor regularly sprays reservoirs' surfaces with insecticidal chemicals such as Bacticide. The human welfare service successfully eradicated the bulk of the mosquitoes' larvae at several Moscow administrative districts in the beginning of June.
Since then, however, reservoirs at Druzhba Park, Strogino, the Baryshikha and Lefortovo recreation areas, and Akademicheskiye and Golovinskiye ponds have made the black list. Officials at these areas were ordered to hold additional sanitizations.
Rospotrebnadzor has also pointed out that doctors in Russia often lack qualification to diagnose patients and provide the appropriate medical treatment in a timely fashion. Even more often, they fail to determine the exact form of the disease. This may lead to multiple after-effects resulting in the patient's death.
Still, the common recommendation is that if a person experiences a headache, temperature, sickness or any other disorder after visiting malaria-prone countries, he or she should immediately go to a doctor for testing.
Viktor Maleev, the Russia's main infectiologist, told Interfax that hot and damp weather, as recently experienced in the Moscow region, contributes to insects' intensive propagation, including that of malaria mosquitoes. However, the malaria situation in the city is not critical now, Maleev said. Only isolated incidences of malaria infection have been registered in the capital in recent years. He suggested that further developments of the malaria situation remain to be seen.
By Sergey Dmitriyev
The Moscow News