MOSCOW. June 5 (Interfax-AVN) - The death rate among Russian active-duty and professional servicemen decreased 10 percent in 2001, Colonel General Ivan Chizh, head of the Defense Ministry main military medical department, said on Wednesday.
The decrease is a result of cooperation between military doctors, officers of the troops service and political work department and unit commanders, Chizh said at the Burdenko main military hospital in Moscow.
"The death rate from combat traumas in combat areas amounts to 1.5 percent, judging from results of the first and second Chechnya campaigns," Chizh said.
According to him, 90 percent of servicemen that got combat traumas in Chechnya have returned to the ranks and only 2.1 percent have retired from military service. As to those who fall ill, more than 99 percent return to the ranks.
The figures are much higher than those of World War II, when 72 percent of wounded people and 90 percent of those who fell ill would return to the ranks, Chizh stressed.
"The current model of medical aid provision to servicemen is very effective. Its essence is reduction of the stages of wounded or sick people transportation to a multi-profile medical facility," the general said.