MOSCOW. Jan 23 (Interfax-AVN) - First-year privates and sergeants account for 80% of all pneumonia and catarrhal cases in the Russian Armed Forces, Colonel Nikolai Sokolovsky, head of the Leningrad Military District Medical Service, told Interfax- Military News Agency on Friday.
"Lower resistance to various infections is caused by the stress, inflicted on young soldiers when they find themselves in new surroundings and conditions of life. Thus, it is of paramount importance to help conscripts adapt to the military service, create normal life conditions, gradually integrate them into the new environment, provide sufficient nutrition, and create the maximum possible comfort," Sokolovsky said.
In 2003 respiratory diseases accounted for 40% of the total number of cases in the Leningrad Military District, Sokolovsky said. "This situation holds true for all units, where such infections can easily be transferred from one person to another," he said.
Sokolovsky said that all permanent combat readiness units, military colleges, and other units had been provided with enough vaccine, remantadin, and other medicines, aimed at reducing the number of acute respiratory disease (ARD) and pneumonia cases.
He also said that the situation, pertaining to ARD among civil population in northwestern Russia, remained tense. "For instance, in December 2003-January 2004 the epidemic threshold was exceeded several fold. At the same time the situation, concerning ARD in most Leningrad Military District units, was considered satisfactory throughout 2003. The number of infectious diseases, caught by servicemen in 2003, reduced by 31.1% y-o-y 2002," Sokolovsky said.