Soldiers burn down reindeer herders' homes Epidemic report delayed for five weeks
Units of biological defense troops are being transferred to Yamal to fight the largest outbreak of anthrax, Ura.ru reports. Now 250 soldiers are already working in the region, who burn the corpses of dead animals and the property of reindeer herders in the contaminated area. The borders of this territory are equipped with sanitary checkpoints with the condition of disinfection during passage.
At the same time, new tents for reindeer herders are being built in the clean zone. Airplanes of the Ministry of Emergency Situations arrive in Salekhard, delivering rescuers and things for arranging temporary housing for reindeer herders. They brought In addition, the planes brought 40 thousand signs warning of the danger of infection and fuel supplies for burning corpses and plagues.
Anthrax was officially announced in Yamal on 25 July. On August 1, the press service of the Okrug Governor reported that eight Yamal nomads, including three children, had been diagnosed with anthrax. Later, the district government confirmed the death from anthrax of a 12-year-old teenager. On August 2, 90 people, including 54 children, were already in hospitals in Yamal with suspected anthrax.
Anthrax bacilli. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2009
The epidemic in the region began after the death of one and a half thousand deer in the Yamal region. Scientists have established that the cause of death of animals was anthrax. Later, another 600 deer died in the Tazovsky district. According to the latest data, a total of 2349 deer died from anthrax in the Yamal region, and another 4.5 thousand are in the danger zone.
Five weeks of silence
“The report on anthrax in Yamal was five weeks late,” said Nikolai Vlasov, deputy head of Rosselkhoznadzor. He criticized the actions of the Yamal authorities to prevent an outbreak of anthrax. “YNAO is not the poorest region, but veterinary care for animals is not good, very weak. Veterinarians learned about the beginning of the anthrax epizootic five weeks after it began. Reindeer herders without a reliable connection, one of them, in order to notify about the emergency, walked for four days across the tundra on foot, ”says Vlasov. The official added that everything that is happening in the region now "looks like they are guarding the airport after a terrorist attack."
Nikolai Vlasov pointed out that the largest outbreak hides a huge danger for future generations, because it is not possible to dispose of deer corpses in time: “Now you need to burn 150 corpses a day. Before they are burned, they will lie for 20-30 days.” The situation is complicated by the fact that animal burial grounds cannot be made in the tundra, since “in the permafrost, the pathogen will be like in a refrigerator.” And the rapid burning of corpses is difficult due to the lack of roads, which delays the transport of combustible materials.
Screenshot from YiuTube, 2016 The deputy head of the Rosselkhoznadzor emphasized that "non-vaccination of animals is the choice of the subjects of the Federation." In his opinion, the leadership of the region leave anthrax as a legacy "for future generations - all this will be conserved no one knows how long."
On August 2, Minister of Health Veronika Skvortsova flew to Yamal. The next day, she, together with Governor Dmitry Kobylkin, visited the infected territories, where she communicated with the sick. Now the head of the Ministry of Health is undergoing a course of antibiotic therapy. “In order for the vaccine to work, you need to wait a few days - this is the same incubation period, which is from 3 to 7 days, the master explained. - I didn’t have such an opportunity, but when I examined the patients, I was in the right anti-epidemic outfit, with gloves, boots, a mask, and so on. Nevertheless, all the doctors who work with patients are now on chemoprophylaxis."
Infectious delicacies
Due to the outbreak of anthrax in Yamal, hunting, picking mushrooms and berries are prohibited. “The infection came from the soil, so it can manifest itself somewhere with a mycelium. The danger, given the presence of pestilence fields, it exists. We discussed wild plants with doctors and with the authorities of the subject, we also need to take definitely restrictive measures. We will not be lost without these mushrooms, but we will live with normal health,” said Vladimir Shevkoplyas, director of the Veterinary Department of the Russian Ministry of Agriculture. The infection can be spread by insects, birds, and scavengers eating deer that have fallen from the disease.
Meanwhile, experts fear that reindeer meat from Yamal contaminated with anthrax could be distributed throughout the country. This opinion "URA.Ru" was expressed by the President of the International Counter-Terrorism Association Joseph Linder.
“Today, it is necessary to put all efforts to ensure that the meat of deer that have become ill with anthrax is not sold,” Linder is sure. - After all, as it happens with us - unscrupulous businessmen are ready for a penny, on the cheap, to buy this meat, and then put it on sale. This life-threatening product must not be allowed to enter stores and restaurants.”
Meditations, 2006 He recalled that now a huge number of deer will be slaughtered in the anthrax outbreak zone. “It is necessary to set up cordons, involve the forces of the FSB, the prosecutor's office, Rospotrebnadzor so that the infected meat does not go beyond the region. Otherwise, we risk facing a catastrophe,” warned the president of the International Counter-Terrorism Association. According to him, it is also necessary to “catch” the meat that was given for sale before the official start of the outbreak in Yamal.
Deadly weapon
The last time an anthrax outbreak was registered in Yamal was 75 years ago. The source of this infection are domestic animals: cattle, sheep, goats, pigs. Infection can occur when caring for sick animals, slaughtering livestock, processing meat, as well as through contact with animal products (hides, skins, fur, wool, bristle), seeded with spores of the anthrax microbe.
Infection can also occur through the soil, in which the spores of the anthrax pathogen persist for many years. Spores enter the skin through microtrauma; when contaminated products are consumed, an intestinal form occurs. The high lethality of the pulmonary and intestinal forms, as well as the ability of the spores of the pathogen to remain viable for many years, are the reason for the use of anthrax bacilli as a biological weapon.
William Rafti, 2003 The largest epidemic of this disease occurred in 1979 in Sverdlovsk. Since then, there have been regular small outbreaks of the disease. So, in August 2012, an outbreak of anthrax with fatal cases was recorded in the Altai Territory - in the village of Marushka and the village of Druzhba.
In August 2010, an anthrax outbreak was recorded in the Tyukalinsky district of the Omsk region. The epidemic began with the death of horses on a private farm, which the owners did not report. Dead animals were not even properly buried. As a result, at least six people fell ill, of which at least one - 49-year-old Alexander Lopatin - died.
Another causative agent of deadly epidemics that regularly reminds of its presence is the plague. On July 12, a ten-year-old boy with bubonic plague was taken to the hospital of the Kosh-Agachsky district of the Altai Republic. The child was admitted to the infectious diseases department of the district hospital with a temperature of about 40 degrees. The boy was cured. Specialists found out that he was in contact with 17 people, of which six were children. All of them were placed in isolation, but none of them, fortunately, got sick. Health workers suggested that the boy could have contracted the plague in a parking lot in the mountains. It is noted that in the region the disease was recorded in marmots.
Bubonic plague is an infectious disease that has claimed more human lives in history than all other diseases combined. Despite all the advances in medicine, it is impossible to completely get rid of the plague, since the causative agent of the disease - the bacterium Yersinia pestis - lives in natural reservoirs, where it infects its main carriers - marmots, ground squirrels and other rodents. These reservoirs exist all over the world and it is unrealistic to destroy them all.
The woodchuck is a carrier of the plague. ablasko, 2012 How smallpox was defeated
In addition, rumors of cases of smallpox regularly arise in Russia, although the World Health Organization has officially recognized this disease as eliminated. However, rumors, as a rule, are not confirmed, and one of the last outbreaks of smallpox was recorded in Moscow in the fifties of the last century. He tells about her:
He was vaccinated today at the 13th polyclinic (she was transferred from Neglinnaya to 19c1 Trubnaya Street, by the way, a long time ago). While they were waiting for their sister, the doctor, an elderly but cheerful, bright-eyed aunt, told a story about a smallpox epidemic in Moscow in the 50s.
I found it on Wiki, I pass it on here:
In the winter of 1959, we got into a bad story. Moscow artist Kokorekin visited India. He happened to be present at the burning of a deceased Brahmin. Having accumulated impressions and gifts for his mistress and wife, he returned to Moscow a day earlier than his wife was waiting for him. He spent these days with his mistress, to whom he gave gifts and in whose arms he spent the night not without pleasantness. Having predicted the arrival of the plane from Delhi in time, he arrived home the next day. Having given gifts to his wife, he felt bad, the temperature rose, his wife called " ambulance”And he was taken to the infectious diseases department of the Botkin hospital.
The senior surgeon on duty Alexei Akimovich Vasiliev, in whose team I was on duty that day, was summoned for a consultation to Kokorekin in the infectious diseases department, with a view to imposing a tracheostomy on him due to respiratory disorders. Vasiliev, having examined the patient, decided that it was not necessary to impose a tracheostomy and went to the ambulance. By morning the patient became heavy and died.
The pathologist who performed the autopsy invited the head of the department, Academician Nikolai Aleksandrovich Kraevsky, to the sectional hall. An old pathologist from Leningrad came to visit Nikolai Alexandrovich, he was invited to the section table. The old man looked at the corpse and said - Yes, my friend, variola vera - smallpox. The old man was right.
Reported to Shabanov. The Soviet health care machine started spinning. They imposed a quarantine on the infectious diseases department, the KGB began to track Kokorekin's contacts. The story was revealed with his early arrival in Moscow and the night of bliss with his mistress. As it turned out, the wife and mistress behaved in the same way - both ran to the thrift stores to hand over gifts. There were several cases of smallpox in Moscow, which ended in death. The hospital was closed for quarantine, it was decided to vaccinate the entire population of Moscow with smallpox vaccine.
There was no vaccine in Moscow, but there was one in the Far East. It was bad weather, the planes did not fly. Finally the vaccine arrived and vaccination began. I endured it very hard, I did not have immunity against smallpox, although I was vaccinated in 1952, when an epidemic of smallpox began in Tajikistan, abandoned from Afghanistan in the traditional way - carpets were thrown across the border on which patients with smallpox were lying.
Update: I found the details here. It turns out that the ill-fated Kokorekin was present not only at the burning of the Brahmin, who definitely died of smallpox, but also the Brahmin's hut. And I thought - how did he manage to get infected, how? After all, before burning, the body is wrapped in several layers of cloth, and heat the fire was supposed to kill all the vibrios. But the vibrio is “resistant to the effects of the external environment, especially to drying and low temperatures. He can long time, for a number of months, persist in crusts and scales taken from pockmarks on the skin of patients ”(wiki). In that hut there were millions of scales of skin and dust with vibrios - and became infected.
And it was after this incident and thanks to the USSR that a program was adopted to eradicate smallpox throughout the world. In the wild forests of India, pictures of people with smallpox were shown to the tribes. So they rooted it out!
Image copyright RIA Novosti Image caption Anthrax kills 2,300 deer in region
After the first outbreak of anthrax in the last 75 years, the authorities of the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug will have to do a lot of work to identify old cattle burial grounds and restrict access to them, Viktor Maleev, deputy director for research at the Central Research Institute of Epidemiology of Rospotrebnadzor, believes.
Anthrax caused the death of a child who on Monday. The number of confirmed human cases has already reached 20, Irina Shestakova, chief freelance infectious disease specialist at the Ministry of Health, said on Tuesday.
According to Shestakova, eight of the 20 cases are children. A total of 90 people were hospitalized, who were in the focus of infection in the Yamal region, but in most of them the diagnosis is not confirmed.
The reason for hospitalization was the slightest ailment, including a runny nose and skin irritation.
"Several patients, who caused us concern a few days ago, today, according to the results of the morning round, showed a stable condition with a very clear positive trend," Shestakova said.
The cases are usually related to families of reindeer herders. 2.3 thousand deer died from anthrax in the region.
According to local authorities, deer in search of food stumbled upon the remains of an animal that died from anthrax and then infected each other.
The Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug authorities have already begun to vaccinate both animals and the families of reindeer herders. The first to receive the vaccine will be residents from the "clean zone", living near the outbreak of the disease.
Meanwhile, all people who were directly in the outbreak receive antibacterial drugs as part of the prevention, and three days after that they will be vaccinated.
BBC Russian Service talked to VictorohmMaleevth about how dangerous the outbreak is in the YNAO and what local authorities need to do now to avoid such incidents in the future.
Animal burial with security
BBC: What are the reasons for the outbreak of anthrax in the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug and is it possible to say that this is some kind of out of the ordinary case?
Victor Maleev: To say that this is something outstanding, of course, is impossible, because there were more outbreaks. The main reason is that the cattle burial grounds, which used to be under permafrost, apparently thawed, and the bacterium became more active. It is usually in spore form, but here it was in vegetative form.
One reason is that we may not know the location of all animal burial sites, and this bacterium can persist for hundreds of years.
When there was an outbreak of the disease many years ago, there was also a very high temperature. This is an animal disease, and now there are more than two thousand reindeer died.
Since people live there very closely, they live near the camps, that is, the sick are among them. So far, one child has died and had an intestinal form: he apparently consumed contaminated meat.
Now they are working on a very important problem - the disposal of dead animals and the creation of a new cattle burial ground for many years to come, with protection so that people no longer have the opportunity to catch this bacterium.
Image copyright Reuters Image caption Spores and vegetative cells of the anthrax pathogen - Bacillus anthracis - under a microscopeBBC: Does this mean that Nenets reindeer herding communities are in a very vulnerable position in relation to this and other diseases that are transmitted through animals?
V.M.: Probably, to some extent, yes. They have such a life, they communicate most closely with animals, and so it has been for many centuries. It's probably better when people are separate, animals are separate, but this is the type of life that exists in many parts of the world. Although, of course, children could be kept away, I guess.
BBC: How big is the public danger of this outbreak?Say, should people in Yamal, who are not reindeer herders and do not live close to them, be afraid of something?
V.M.: No, this infection is not transmitted in this way. It is dermal, that is, it is a contact route of transmission, only people who have contacted deer.
In this case, there is a skin form, only one boy had an intestinal form, and the skin form is dangerous only by contact. Since all patients with a cutaneous form are already isolated, it is impossible for someone to rub closely against this skin, so the contact route of transmission is not dangerous for others.
True, we need to watch others, because we do not know how many people interacted with deer.
Climate influence
BBC: What is the forecastAndWhen is anthrax diagnosed in humans? What does it depend on?
V.M.: The prognosis depends on the time of initiation of treatment and on the form of the disease. When there were cases of bioterrorism in America, the disease was spread by airborne droplets. The pulmonary form, as in cases of bioterrorism, is worse, and when it is cutaneous, it is usually considered that the lethality is up to 10%.
BBC: The last time anthrax was recorded in Yamal was in 1941, 75 years ago. Why is the disease returning?
V.M.: Climate, climate. Climate change has a strong impact. Old cattle burial grounds: apparently, it was just that while there was permafrost, we did not fully know what was there.
These places are poorly explored, and cattle burial grounds for 100 years after burial are dangerous, and now this situation has turned out with a sharp warming of the climate.
In other regions of Russia, access to animal burial grounds is limited, they are known, they are protected, no activity is carried out there. And here all the same nomadic places, huge spaces.
BBC: It was reported that the manufacturer of the anthrax vaccine shipped a thousand doses to Yamal. Who is the primary target for the vaccine?
V.M.: Now we mainly vaccinate veterinarians and livestock breeders. Now we must be especially careful, because we do not know: maybe some deer have already suffered mild forms of the disease, and people communicate with them.
You also need to vaccinate laboratory workers who work with bacteria. Thank God there is a vaccine. It is not found in many other diseases.
Now the main thing is to return to the issue of these animal burial grounds in order to limit them so that the animals do not climb there.
Former gymnast, Olympic champion Alina Kabaeva impressed fans with her slender body and radiant smile. In addition, she again gave rise to journalists and gossips for rumors about her personal life. After all, on the show Alexei Nemov "Legends of Sports" Alina appeared with a wedding ring on her ring finger.
Contradictory news has always appeared about Kabaeva's chosen one in the press. But in last years she was credited with an affair with Vladimir Putin. And some gossips claimed that Alina gave birth to two children from the president. However, the athlete herself chose to completely ignore such speculation and still does not reveal the identity of the father of her children.
At the event, Kabaeva made an incredible sensation. She showed a slender toned body and glowed with happiness. The celebrity was happy to talk with reporters and posed for photographers, from whose keen eyes she could not hide wedding ring. Alina still does not answer questions from the press about her personal life and does not comment on the rumors that appear in the media from time to time.
The Olympic champion, chairman of the board of directors of Sport-Express, ex-deputy of the State Duma of Russia Alina Kabaeva, who rarely goes out, attended the show of the famous gymnast Alexei Nemov "Legends of Sports", which featured dozens of outstanding athletes. Photos of Kabaeva from the event flooded social networks.
According to the publication "7 days", the champion came to the show in the company of her friend and her children. Despite the fact that Kabaeva did not take part in the concert itself, she was in the spotlight: she posed for photographers with pleasure, and greeted the audience before the start of the performance.
“I am grateful to Alexei Nemov that he does not forget us and invites us to such projects,” said Kabaeva. - This is an incredible sight, and I really look forward to the performance of our current rhythmic gymnastics team. She performed brilliantly at the Rio Olympics, showing the highest level. Now there is a lot of discussion about a possible reduction in the requirements for the performances of gymnasts so that the national teams of other countries can catch up with Russia. But this seems unfair to me. Why should we lower our bar? Let them strive to reach our level!”
To go out, the girl chose a black and gold suit. Kabaeva threw on her shoulders White coat. Many viewers looked with interest at the engagement ring on the athlete's ring finger.
The unique show "Legends of Sports" was held in Moscow at the Megasport Sports Palace. The author of the show is a four-time Olympic champion in artistic gymnastics Alexei Nemov. According to the organizers, the program includes performances by Russian gymnastics stars of the last 20 years. The production brought together the stars of world artistic and rhythmic gymnastics, the most difficult acrobatics, acrobatic rock and roll, a trampoline, the latest stage technology and impressive circus performances. More than 200 participants performed on the same stage, among them great athletes such as Svetlana Khorkina, Elena Zamolodchikova, Laysan Utyasheva, Sergey Khorkov, Anton Golotsutskov, Nikolai Kryukov and many others.
Note that Alina Kabaeva is trying to lead a non-public lifestyle. Before that, the girl appeared in public in June during the Alina Rhythmic Gymnastics Festival.
Alina Kabaeva, who lost weight, appeared in public with two boys and a ring that looked like an engagement ring. The British tabloid Daily Mail suggested that this is the "secret family" of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The publication reports that 33-year-old Kabaeva, whose ties with Putin have been written since 2008, came to the sports show of Alexei Nemov at the Moscow Megasport Sports Palace with two boys, whose age is unknown, and all the time tried to hide the wedding ring from the cameras. 
In September 2014, Kabaeva completed her deputy activities in the State Duma and took the post of chairman of the board of directors of the National Media Group holding. 
In March last year, the Swiss media wrote that Kabaeva had given birth to a child for Putin, so he did not appear in public for more than a week. The Kremlin said that this information is not true. 
It also became known about suspicious transactions with elite real estate, in which Kabaeva's grandmother Anna Zatsepilina, or a woman who is her full namesake, participated. Two businessmen included in the list the richest people Russia and those associated with Putin (Gennady Timchenko and Pyotr Kolbin), sold her three apartments in the elite areas of Moscow and St. Petersburg. 
We are talking about two apartments in a house on the Arbat in Moscow and an apartment in a house overlooking the Peter and Paul Cathedral in the center of St. Petersburg. The area of two adjacent two-room apartments Zatsepilina in Moscow - 601 square meters; the area of St. Petersburg real estate is 211 square meters. 
This is not all the luxury real estate that Zatsepilina has recently taken over. In March 2016, Reuters published an article about Arkady Rotenberg's partner, Grigory Baevsky, who, according to journalists, transferred or sold real estate to several women "associated with President Vladimir Putin." 
Referring to the materials of the International Organization of Investigative Journalists, the agency said that Baevsky handed over luxury real estate to Katerina Tikhonova (alleged daughter of the Russian president), student Alisa Kharcheva, who posed for Putin's birthday calendar, and two relatives of Alina Kabaeva - sister Leysan Kabaeva and grandmother Anna Zatsepilina. 
Then the presidential press secretary Dmitry Peskov refused to comment on the Reuters material, calling it an "information stuffing" carried out with the aim of "shaking the situation in the country." 
