CHECHNYA LINKS LIBRARY

Chechnya sees growth in number of patients with oncological diseases, tuberculosis and nervous disorders

By Timur Aliyev

GROZNY, Chechnya – The consequences of military actions in Chechnya are leading to an increase in the number of patients with oncological diseases, tuberculosis and nervous disorders. This is evidenced in data supplied by the republic’s Ministry of Public Health and by its medical institutions.

According to the data of the republic's psychoneurological dispensary, out of 200 adult inhabitants of Chechnya 137 are suffering from psychological disorders of one kind or another. Only the reason for the stress has changed, the specialists of the dispensary assert.

"Whereas three or four years ago there was no doubt that the incidence of psychological trauma was related to the violation of human rights in Chechnya, today the foreground is occupied by economic reasons for stress – unemployment and the population’s low standard of living," they say.

According to the data of the Chechen Ministry of Public Health, over the period from 1991 to 2001 the morbidity of the population from tuberculosis has increased threefold. "The primary cause of tuberculosis as a socially significant disease is the low standard of living of the republic’s inhabitants and, as a consequence, the weakening of the organism’s immune system,” Vakha Yandarov, assistant to the Chechen Minister of Public Health, considers.

According to the information of the International Committee of the Red Cross, up to 80 percent of the inhabitants of Chechnya suffer from various forms of oncological diseases, tuberculosis, and cardiovascular and hematological diseases. One of the reasons for the increase in the number of diseases in the republic is the unfavourable ecological situation in the region, i.e. the degree of the pollution of the surrounding environment, the physicians assume.

Translated by David McDuff.

(MD,T/B)

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