MOSCOW. Jan 22 (Interfax-AVN) - There were no mass catarrhal diseases during the 2003 fall draft, chief of the Medical Directorate of the Russian Defense Ministry Colonel General Ivan Chizh told Interfax-Military News Agency Thursday.
"There were no mass catarrhal diseases registered during the fall draft to the Armed Forces," he said.
"Of course, the rate of catarrhal disease grows in winter, especially in December to January, in the Armed Forces, like in the entire country. However, any emergency talks are ridiculous," he said.
According to Chizh, this winter fewer soldiers caught a cold and pneumonia year on year. "Less than 2 percent of all young men conscripted in the fall 2003 have revealed catarrhal diseases," Chizh said.
He added that the army has to take in a lot of underweight young men with weak phylaxis, and long-distance transfer of new conscripts also adds to the disease rate.
"Transfer over more than 1,500km weakens phylaxis, that is why even during spring drafts there is a rise in such diseases," the general said.
When immunoresistance falls down, he also said, viruses get more active, and lack of due medical care creates a perfect background for, for example, pneumonia. "On the earliest symptoms of a disease one should consult a doctor immediately," he emphasized.
According to Chizh, the military medical service has currently everything necessary for due treatment and prophylactics. Regional medical services have been ordered to tighter monitor newly conscripted soldiers, Chizh said.