Five-year strongest epidemic of acarine encephalitis has broken out in Russia.
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Russia Threatened by Acarine Encephalitis
Five-year strongest epidemic of acarine encephalitis has broken out in Russia. It has covered 46 regions, and the number of infected has surpassed 30,000, including 15 dead to-date, said Russia’s Chief Health Officer Gennady Onishchenko.
The situation has further aggravated on failure of regional authorities to order required quantities of immunoglobulin, so not all infected will get the medicament to cure the disease that causes acute inflammation of the brain, as a result of which the brain pushes against the skull and the death occurs.
The chances are high that the virus will reach Moscow Region in the near term.
According to Onishchenko, the regional authorities had hit-or-miss hopes this year and didn’t order the vaccine in time. The thing is that acarine encephalitis declined in 2006 and 2005, but it surged again in 2007 on abnormally warm winter and extremely hot weather that has hit the Asian part of Russia. The people have gone to the countryside at large to give a boost to the insect pests.
The encephalitis has killed 15 since early May. “It is a very high indicator for encephalitis, the more so that the virus decline could be expected only in mid-July. So, the probability is very high that it will soon reach Moscow Region as well,” said Galina Karganova, chief of the acarine encephalitis laboratory of the Poliomyelitis and Acarine Encephalitis Institute.
In the absence of vaccine, the medical advice to the Russians is to look after themselves, avoiding the basket lunches in the forest at least till the middle of July. Not the trees, but rather the sunny lawns with high grass are the places of greatest hazard. And last but not least, the pets will feel better without the forest walks for the time being.
www.kommersant.com
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