There's enough bleach

The sanitary and epidemiological situation in refugee camps is under control

Refugees from South Ossetia, taken yesterday and the day before yesterday from the combat zone, are settled in temporary accommodation centers on the territory of North Ossetia and have access to all basic necessities and medicines. Deputy Minister of Health Maxim Topilin, who is personally involved in organizing social assistance in Vladikavkaz and its environs, told a Vremya Novostei correspondent about this last night. “At the moment, there are already three and a half thousand refugees in organized gathering places. All of them are housed - some in very good conditions, others in more modest conditions. But in all temporary accommodation places there are medical centers and psychologists,” noted the Deputy Minister. From today, by his order, social workers will also work with refugees; they have been given the command to identify lonely and helpless elderly people, as well as patients with cerebral palsy, people with infants, and provide them with assistance separately. “For example, they brought a bedridden grandmother. She is alone, she needs help with literally everything. It was necessary to urgently place her in a special boarding house for the elderly,” said Maxim Topilin. “But from now on, the provision of such assistance will be systemic.”

As of Monday evening, about 800 people had already been redirected from the Republic of North Ossetia-Alania to other regions of Russia. “People are being received by Krasnodar, the Rostov region, Kabardino-Balkaria and Karachay-Cherkessia,” the Ministry of Health and Social Development said. More than 300 refugees arrived in Anapa and were placed in sanatoriums and recreation centers. According to ministry employees stationed in North Ossetia, the places where refugees are temporarily accommodated - pioneer camps, tourist centers - may be “poor, but it’s clean - there’s enough bleach.” There are no mountains of garbage, no rats, or any other typical signs of unsanitary conditions and an impending sanitary and epidemiological disaster. “In each such place, sanitary doctors work and disinfect common areas,” Vremya Novostei was told. True, until today there was a certain tension with personal hygiene items - soap and toilet paper. Although even in terms of this indicator, the situation in the area where refugees are located cannot be compared with what is happening where they are brought from.

The head of the Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations, Sergei Shoigu, spoke about the acute shortage of personal hygiene items in Tskhinvali yesterday at a conference call in Vladikavkaz. According to him, on Wednesday a convoy with humanitarian aid will leave North Ossetia for Tskhinvali. Among other cargo, hygienic cargo will be delivered to the combat zone: “These should be kits, there is no need to send them in bulk. It is necessary that we be able to distribute kits to people.” Hygiene items will also be supplied from all regions of the Southern Federal District. Along with cargoes of food (approximately 373 tons) and drinking water (more than half a million bottles).

The issue of providing food to people in the humanitarian disaster zone is being resolved in a working manner. According to the head of the Ministry of Emergency Situations, “the rate of arrival is 160 tons of food per day and this will continue.” The role of Russian regions here is also not the last. “Kalmykia offered 2 thousand heads of live sheep,” said Sergei Shoigu. Already yesterday, 52 tons of cargo were sent by road convoy for delivery to the affected republic. “In the coming days - this means today, tomorrow and the day after tomorrow - another 150 tons of cargo will be delivered, including 124 tons of food, three water treatment stations, 13 mobile power plants,” the deputy head of the Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations said at a briefing yesterday Ruslan Tsalikhov. Thus, in total, there will be 21 mobile power stations and 23 stations for integrated water purification in the conflict zone, as well as 40 tons of medicines and equipment.

The medical component of humanitarian assistance is, of course, one of the most important. Tomorrow it is planned to open a multidisciplinary hospital of the All-Russian Center for Disaster Medicine “Zashchita”. Equipment and specialists will travel as part of the already mentioned column. The hospital will operate on the basis of the Tskhinvali Republican Hospital together with the airmobile hospital of the Centrospas detachment of the Ministry of Emergency Situations. Its staff consists of 25 doctors and nurses. The special children's team that will work within the framework of this hospital is headed by the chief specialist - pediatric surgeon of the Ministry of Health and Social Development of Russia Vladimir Rozinov. The hospital is carrying with it one intensive care unit, one ambulance, four operating tables and 6 tons of medicines.

“The cargo of medicines also includes insulin, which diabetics will be able to receive at medical centers,” noted Maxim Topilin, “and the entire range of necessary medications.” According to him, the medical centers where refugees are accommodated have ECG machines, fluorography units and other medical equipment. “But the most important thing now is for people to get timely help from psychologists,” say those who work with people who escaped bullets. Yesterday Sergei Shoigu said that at least 25 more psychologists are needed, although several dozen specialists from the Institute. Serbsky is already working in the region. “All specialists are ready to fly out immediately if necessary,” the Minister of Health and Social Development Tatyana Golikova, who also participated in the conference call, immediately responded to the request. According to her, in addition to psychologists, ophthalmologists, neurosurgeons and traumatologists are preparing for possible deployment to Ossetia. There are only 30 people who underwent retraining after Beslan. Currently, according to Ms. Golikova, there are 199 wounded in medical institutions. Of these, 105 people are in a military hospital. 13 children injured in the conflict zone are in a children's hospital in Java.

Galina PAPERNAYA