29 July 2005, 17:14
Chechnya struck with TB
Chechnya's health professionals are concerned about a dramatic increase in the number of people with lung diseases.
More than 18,000 people are registered to have tuberculosis in Chechnya presently, according to the republican Health Ministry's information. This figure continues to grow.
"The number of people with TB in the republic has grown significantly over the past few years. This figure is 18,000 according to official information alone. About 3,000 are children. As a matter of fact, the figure is much higher. After all, one person with TB can infect several dozen people. The trouble is also that we have no conditions and opportunities to carry out preventive activities, reveal this disease in early stages, and so on, because there is no required base, including technical," a worker with the republican Health Ministry told Caucasian Knot's correspondent in an interview.
"The war-stricken republic where the overwhelming majority of the population live below the poverty line creates favourable conditions for this type of disease to spread. After all, it is not without reason that TB is called the 'poor man's disease.' A person with TB needs good food, fruit, vegetables, but by far not everyone can afford this presently. Many citizens do not even know that they are ill and come to doctors only when the disease is in the stage of destroying their lungs. Unless urgent measures are taken to combat this disease, it may be too late soon," he thinks. "The situation will just be out of control."
Author: Sultan Abubakarov, CK correspondent
