Moscow airports face tightened flu control

by at 15/02/2013 14:41

The Moscow News

Moscow health officials have tightened control over flights arriving from the United States and China in a move to tackle a flu pandemic, the capital’s chief sanitary doctor said on Friday.

Health specialists have been deployed to all local airports to keep a close eye on arrivals from the two countries since their morbidity rates remain quite high, Yelena Andreyeva, head of the local branch of the Federal Service for Consumer Rights and Human Welfare Protection, said.

The outbreak of flu and acute respiratory infection in the Russian capital started about two weeks ago when sickness rates for flu and acute respiratory infection rocketed by just over 20 percent, Moscow’s sanitary boss said, according to RBC.

The city’s largest airport, Domodedovo, has seen increased sanitary staff since experts from Moscow joined their colleagues from the regional sanitary service who are to monitor the situation normally, RIA Novosti reported. 

Moscow to foot bill for drug tests on youth

13/02/2013 12:55

The Moscow News

The Moscow government will from now on pay for drug use tests for schoolchildren and university students, a Moscow City Duma deputy said.

“Tests will be carried out at the expense of the city budget and if an additional funding is necessary we will find it,” said Lyudmila Stebenkova, the head of the Moscow parliament’s health committee, commenting on a new law adopted by it on Tuesday.

Currently, if parents want to check if their children consume drugs, they have to pay for the test themselves.

Under the new law the tests will be carried out on a voluntary basis. For children under 15 years parents’ consent will be needed.

Testing will take place in medical establishments anonymously and only doctors and parents will be aware of the results. Officials will only know the number of students who tested positive in their educational establishments but not their personal data, Stebenkova said.

A simple Internet search showed that prices for comprehensive multiple drug tests in Moscow’s clinics ranged between 2,800 rubles and 4,700 rubles.

St. Petersburg cancer center to stay: health minister

by RIA Novosti at 05/02/2013 16:12

The Moscow News

None of St. Petersburg’s hospitals will be reformed for the relocation of higher courts to Russia’s second largest city, Health Minister Veronika Skvortsova told RIA Novosti on Tuesday, ultimately ending persistent rumors that a unique children’s cancer treatment center may be closed.

"It has been decided that no medical institution in St. Petersburg will be reformed because of the federal project," she said. “It’s final,” she added, when asked if the decision could still be reversed.

The news that Hospital N31, one of the largest and best equipped in St. Petersburg which accommodates the center, was allegedly to be transformed into a clinic for Supreme Court and Supreme Arbitration Court staff after they moved to St. Petersburg from Moscow and caused heated public response at the end of last year.

City and federal government officials have repeatedly said that the hospital would not be affected. But bloggers have continued to insist that a reform at the hospital is still being prepared.

Skvortsova said that a high-tech clinic for the court’s staff, as well as for the city’s residents, would be built at a different location.