RUSSIA: Wave of alcohol poisoning kills dozens across Russia

Dozens of Russians have died and more than 1,000 received hospital treatment in a wave of alcohol poisoning that is sweeping the country, Russian authorities said on Saturday (October 28). Alcoholism, coupled with poisoning by low-quality and bootleg liquor, remains one of post-Soviet Russia's most serious problems and contributes to a life expectancy for men of only 59 years. "All patients are suffering the same symptoms. We know what liquid it was, it was a disinfectant used to apply on the walls in hospitals with the idea to prevent tuberculosis. I just do not understand why this stuff was added to the spirit," said epidemiologist Konstantin Brutin, who works at a hospital in Yekaterinburg. One northwest region near the Baltic Sea, Pskov, imposed a state of emergency this month to tackle alcohol-related problems, mostly involving hepatitis and other liver diseases. "I did not notice that I was ill at first, then people told me that I was turning yellow , and I felt worse every day," said one patient, Vasily. Russian media, quoting the Emergencies Ministry, said the largest outbreak had been recorded in Siberia's Irkutsk region, where some 650 people had fallen ill and 27 had died. More than 200 cases and seven deaths were recorded in the Perm region in the Ural mountains and 100 cases and three deaths in Volgograd in southern Russia. Police have intensified spot checks on shops and liquor plants to try to stamp out the use of deadly additives, like methylated spirits, which boost the alcohol content of a drink. "The criminal cases were opened because several people died in Chelyabinsk and Kamensk-Uralsky after drinking a tainted alcohol," said Yekaterinburg Region Prosecutor Dmitry Serebrenyakov. Russia is the world's biggest consumer of vodka and drinking is part of many social occasions. Liquor of all descriptions is available at kiosks on virtually every street corner in major towns, with an average bottle of vodka selling for the equivalent of $3 to $4. Living standards have improved in recent years, boosted by oil revenues, and average monthly salaries are the equivalent of $400. But residents of villages and small towns, where unemployment is high, earn considerably less.

ITN Source | October 29, 2006

Tags:. .treatment. .patients. .prevent. .plants. .diseases