Russia Cardiologists Can Look Western Colleagues in Eye with Hearts Bursting with Pride - 9 October, 2002

'Russian cardiologists can look their Western colleagues in the eye without feeling ashamed,' said Russian Health Minister Yuri Belenkov at the Russian National Congress of Cardiologists in St. Petersburg. He announced that Russia is one of the first countries in the world where doctors have successfully started treating cardiovascular diseases using a system of resurrecting irreversibly lost heart tissue. Various Russian regions are also establishing cardiologic centres.

According to Belenkov, despite the large number of Russians suffering from cardiovascular diseases, 'Russian cardiologists view the future with optimism'. Thanks to a federal targeted programme called Preventing and Treating Arterial Hypertrophy in 2002-2008 experts hope to reduce the number of deaths from cardiovascular diseases by 17-20%. About 1.2 million people currently die from cardiovascular diseases annually in Russia.