Infections may break out in flooded regions of South Russia

Russia's chief sanitary physician Gennady Onishchenko has warned of the danger of various infectious diseases breaking out in the South Russian regions that have suffered from recent floods.

He said that the risk of the outbreak of Hepatitis A was particularly great.

Gennady Onishchenko who visited the regions that have suffered from the flood, said in a Rossiyskaya Gazeta interview (on June 26) that the "scale of the calamity is great." More than 360,000 people in 181 settlements have no drinking water. Onishchenko considers the provision of the population with drinking water to be the prime task now.

On the whole, said Onishchenko, as the floods subside in Stavropol Territory and Daghestan life in the region is returning to normal. However, he stressed it is imperative now that elementary life-support conditions have been upset, to provide the population with adequate protection and prevent the spread of infections.

According to Onishchenko's information, only in Stavropol Territory more than 1,500 people went to the temporary medical centres, where they were given medical and psychological aid. Beginning with June 24 rounds of visits of all households in the settlements have been organized to detect possible infections and render the necessary aid.