Everyone is vaccinated. “The picture was reminiscent of a horror film”: Yamal residents told the truth about anthrax Anthrax epidemic in Yamal sabotage

12:06 — REGNUM Yamal tundra dwellers who lost property during sanitation from anthrax will be allocated 90 million rubles from the district budget, the correspondent was told IA REGNUM in the press service of the regional governor.

These funds will be used to equip about 100 new tents for families of reindeer herders. Until the resettlement, all tundra dwellers will continue to remain in Yar-Sale under the supervision of doctors to undergo antibiotic therapy. All residents from the quarantine zone, namely 211 people, will be vaccinated. The deer population from the quarantine zone is fully vaccinated. Veterinarians report that the death of deer has stopped. The livestock of neighboring territories will be vaccinated - another 200 thousand doses of vaccine for animals will be delivered to Yamal in the coming days.

As previously reported IA REGNUM, from the 20th of July, signals began to come from the Yamal region that the reindeer were experiencing an abnormally high temperature, and mortality began. By the weekend, the most difficult situation had developed in the herds of private reindeer herders near the Tarko-Sale trading post in the Yamal region and in the reindeer herding brigade roaming nearby. Losses among deer at that time amounted to 1200 heads, today - more than 2300. Analysis of samples taken from animals showed the cause of death - anthrax spores. From July 25 in the Yamal-Nenets Autonomous Okrug, by order of the governor Dmitry Kobylkin Quarantine has been introduced in the Yamal region. At first, experts assured that there was no threat to people, the tundra people were examined and no anthrax patients were found among them. Since July 22, a general practitioner has been with the reindeer herders to monitor their health. However, yesterday, August 1, it became known that a 12-year-old child had died from anthrax. “As of 5:00 on August 2, 90 people were delivered to the Salekhard Design Bureau. Of these, 54 are children,” a source in medical circles told Life.ru.

According to experts, the likely cause of the infection of the deer was the site of the long-ago death of a sick animal, which was opened due to the heat. There are no cattle burial grounds in the Yamal region, but given the viability of the anthrax pathogen - 100 years or more and its resistance to temperature changes - it is assumed that deer, in search of food, stumbled upon the site of an animal that died from anthrax and then infected each other. Experts believe that the reason for the reindeer infection was an unusually warm summer for the Far North. The thawed tundra and deer weakened by heat and contact helped spread the deadly infection.

A ban has now been introduced on the export of any meat, antlers, or skins from the Yamal region. Veterinary control and inspection have been strengthened at all airports, train stations, river ports and all transport hubs of the Autonomous Okrug. There is no slaughter of deer at this time of year in Yamal, so residents and guests of the region are urged not to buy deer meat at spontaneous markets. District residents are also advised not to collect wild plants and mushrooms.

At the site of the anthrax outbreak, work is underway to eliminate dead animals. More than 200 liquidators are equipped with special equipment, their own laboratory, and special means to eliminate infection and disinfect the area. As the correspondent was told IA REGNUM in the regional Rospotrebnadzor, complete deratization covered all subject objects and housing stock in the village of Yar-Sale. 23 thousand 069 square meters have already been processed. m. Disinfection measures are carried out at the airports of Salekhard and Yar-Sale. Disinfection points for helicopters and sanitary areas have been deployed. More than 200 water studies have been conducted.

At the railway station named after. Vladimir Naka (Obskaya - Bovanenkovo ​​railway) a military camp has been deployed. Highly qualified employees of the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Emergency Situations, Rospotrebnadzor, and the Ministry of Agriculture of the Russian Federation have already been sent to support colleagues of the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug.

Residents of Yamal are urged not to give in to provocateurs inciting panic. There is no epidemic in Yamal. Quarantine was introduced locally, and the district borders are not closed to the entry and exit of people.

Today, August 2, the Minister of Health of the Russian Federation Veronica Skvortsova flew to Salekhard, where she will hold a meeting on the organization of medical care and anti-epidemic measures in connection with the anthrax outbreak in the Yamal-Nenets Autonomous Okrug. The minister will also visit the district hospital and examine the sick and personally check the organization of assistance directly at the outbreak of the disease, the Ministry of Health reports.

Let us recall that the last recorded case of an anthrax outbreak was recorded in Yamal in 1941. Since 1968, the entire territory of the Yamal-Nenets Autonomous Okrug has been officially recognized as free from this infection. According to Rosselkhoznadzor, sporadic cases of anthrax disease in animals are recorded annually in Russia: two to three points unfavorable for the disease and from two to seven sick animals. From 2009 to 2014, 40 human cases of anthrax were reported in Russia, which was 43% higher than the number of cases in the previous five years. Anthrax was found in three federal districts Russia: North Caucasus - 20 cases, South - 9 cases and Siberian - 11 cases.

Specialists from the radiation, chemical and biological protection, only 200 people. Their task is to eliminate the consequences of the anthrax outbreak in the Yamal tundra. Before heading to the contaminated zone, military personnel underwent a medical examination and mandatory vaccination.

The head of the military State Sanitary and Epidemiological Supervision of Yekaterinburg, Pavel Davydov, said: “the vaccine used for specific prevention has been approved for use in the RF Armed Forces for the prevention of anthrax, and has repeatedly proven its effectiveness in areas of epidemic morbidity; its effectiveness was 95 percent.”

The military has 30 units of special equipment at its disposal. Army planes delivered preparations for disinfection of territories from the Samara region. Helicopters will ensure the rapid transfer of people. Deployment point - area of ​​the Vladimir Naka station railway Obskaya - Bovanenkovo. Meanwhile, the quarantine introduced in the Yamal region on July 25 continues to apply. All this time, specialists from relevant departments worked there.

Mass death - the first message about this came to the administration of the Yamal region from the village of Factoria Tarko-Sale. Private reindeer herders reported that more than 60 reindeer died in their herd. This was just the first wake-up call. Later, reports of the death came from private reindeer herders grazing their herds in the area of ​​Lake Yaroto.

« This is north of Lake Yaroto, northern shore of Lake Edwanto. It is difficult to count there, whether near the plague or in the tundra - it is difficult. They counted about 200 heads.", said Deputy Head of the Yamal District Administration Yuri Khudi.

To find out the reasons for the death, representatives of the administration and veterinarians immediately flew to the tundra. They carried out all the necessary actions in such a situation. Tissue samples were taken from the dead animals for further analysis. The suspected cause of death is heatstroke.

But everything turned out to be much more serious. Death in the herds continued. And then the laboratory announced the diagnosis: anthrax.

At the first camp, the picture is not for the faint of heart. Hungry calves do not leave their dead mothers. There is only one way out - to take the rest of the herd to a safe distance, make a corral there and urgently vaccinate the animals. Materials for the pen, which is usually carried by deer, are delivered by helicopter.

The camp is different - the picture is the same. Veterinarians unload the vaccine, shepherds collect plagues to leave dangerous places.

Vyacheslav Khritin has been here before. The first time was when a mass death was reported. Once it became known that the cause of death of the animals was not heat, but anthrax, experts assumed that the deer, looking for food in an area of ​​thawed permafrost, stumbled upon the corpse of a long-dead animal.

Only powerful equipment can dig reliable cattle burial grounds; it has already been sent to the emergency site. The Yamal region has been declared a sanitary quarantine zone. Children and women were taken from the camps. Most were taken to the Yarsala hospital. 32 people, most of whom were children, were sent to the Salekhard hospital.

“An individual approach is provided to each child, everyone receives specific treatment. Patients are treated by infectious disease doctors. The mothers of the children who are caring for them are being monitored dynamically - they also receive antibacterial therapy,” said Irina Lapenko, head of the infectious diseases department of the Special Clinical Clinical Hospital.

Resident of the Yamal region Irina Salinder: “ The baby feels fine; when they arrived by helicopter, her temperature rose. Now he seems to be feeling normal, his temperature has dropped».

The situation is under control. The head of the region, Dmitry Kobylkin, promised the necessary support to reindeer herders and their families; he personally met with patients from the Yamal tundra.

« Rospotrebnadzor and the Ministry Agriculture They assigned us specialists - 4 from one department and 4 from another. Experienced people, people who almost every year in one or another part of Russia face such diseases and problems"- said the Governor of the Yamal-Nenets Autonomous Okrug Dmitry Kobylkin.

They tried to localize the anthrax outbreak in every possible way. The infection affected three reindeer herds, killing more than one and a half thousand heads. It will take time to understand the real reasons for what happened. But there are several versions.

Meanwhile, urgent vaccination of animals was organized in the herds. The issue with the vaccine for people has also been resolved; it was delivered to Yamal this week. Valuable cargo - 1000 doses of anthrax vaccine - was delivered from Moscow. The first in line for vaccination are reindeer herders and specialists working in the infection zone. Those who were at the epicenter of events initially will first have to complete drug therapy.

The last time an outbreak of this disease, dangerous for both animals and people, was recorded on the territory of Yamal in 1941. And since 1968, the district has been officially included in the list of “anthrax-free” territories of the USSR. To personally assess the situation, the chief sanitary doctor Russia Anna Popova. She stated that all necessary sanitary measures were taken by the authorities on time, and prevention will continue. The situation will be monitored daily.

Shepherds with their herds were taken away from the infection zone to a safe distance to the areas of fish lakes, and all reindeer herders in the Yamal region were notified of the current situation. The nomads and their families who found themselves at the epicenter of events were provided with prompt assistance.

Everyone is involved in helping the nomads - the district authorities, public associations, and simply caring fellow countrymen.

Control over deer herds has been strengthened throughout the district. Death cases were also noted in the Gydan tundra. The picture is the same - the animals began to weaken and fall, but the shepherds considered the reason for this to be the intense heat and long marches. However, veterinarians immediately flew to the area of ​​the death. They examined the dead animals and took samples of biomaterials from them.

With the onset of cool weather, the situation in the Gydan tundra stabilized. Meanwhile, the research results came. The local deer do not have anthrax.

Reindeer herders are also relatively prosperous Purovsky district. Vaccination of animals began there. But not from anthrax, but from the subcutaneous gadfly. Because of the heat and fires, the local deer also suffered, the tundra dwellers complain.

The heat has receded. Vaccination of surviving animals in the Yamal region has been completed. After such vaccination, they no longer carry the danger of spreading anthrax, veterinarians say. In the tundra, preparations for the disposal of dead animals are in full swing. Experts from the mainland joined in solving the problem. Even in the 21st century, the problem of eliminating the consequences of an epizootic is considered one of the most difficult. Yamal needs to simultaneously solve two different problems - to ensure the safety of nomads and to preserve as much as possible the pastures of the world's largest herd of reindeer.

MOSCOW, August 3 – RIA Novosti, Larisa Zhukova. An anthrax outbreak hit the Yamalo-Nenets District for the first time in 75 years. Recently it became known about the death of a 12-year-old child. Ulcers were found in 20 people. Another 70 remain hospitalized with suspected infection, more than half of them children. RIA Novosti found out why the bacillus is dangerous, how to protect yourself from the disease, and what the authorities and local residents think about it.

Causes of the outbreak

Quarantine in the Yamal district of the district was introduced on July 25. Then it became known about the mass death of animals: more than 2 thousand deer died from anthrax. According to local residents, the media and authorities did not report what happened for about a week: “We learned all the information primarily from social networks from relatives of doctors and rescuers of the Ministry of Emergency Situations,” said Salekhard resident Galina (name changed).

“The scale of the epidemic was also influenced by the fact that at first they thought that the hot weather was to blame and the deer were dying from heatstroke. We lost a week or even a little more due to this,”

Told by local resident Ivan (name changed).

Anthrax was found in 20 Nenets. The figures were given by the chief freelance specialist of the Russian Ministry of Health for infectious diseases, Irina Shestakova.

According to her, all the infected are nomadic reindeer herders who were at the epicenter of the infection outbreak in the tundra. Most of them have the cutaneous form of the disease.

This is not complete data on the number of cases, district governor Dmitry Kobylkin told RIA Novosti. According to him, it takes up to thirty days to establish an accurate diagnosis: today is only the eighth day.

In 2007, mandatory vaccination against infection was canceled: scientists did not find anthrax spores in the soil, the governor said. The situation turned out to be extraordinary: last time there was an epidemic in 1941. We had to ask for help from the military: “It was difficult to quickly dispose of the fallen deer on our own before they decomposed. And they were scattered over a long distance,” said Dmitry Kobylkin.

Why is the disease dangerous?

"Anthrax is quite contagious and causes a large number of deaths,” said Vladislav Zhemchugov, Doctor of Medical Sciences, a specialist in especially dangerous infections. - The spores of the pathogen are stored in the soil for centuries. The infection, which entered the ground along with a dead animal back in the time of Alexander the Great, remains active." According to the doctor, outbreaks of the disease occur after the activation of foci (washing of spores to the surface) during floods, excavations or melting ice, as in Yamal.

The disease occurs in different forms: skin, intestinal and pulmonary. The pulmonary form, for example, was present in the United States when envelopes with spores were sent out - this is the most severe form of infection. Almost one hundred percent fatal without urgent medical intervention: people lose consciousness and die within a few hours of infection.

“It is easier to cure the skin form, because lymph nodes stand in the way of the bacteria: they delay the development of the disease. A sign of infection are carbuncles - ulcers with a black top. The intestinal form of anthrax causes high fever, pain in the intestines and diarrhea. The period from infection to death can amount to several hours or days,” said Vladislav Zhemchugov.

Most often, infection occurs when eating or cutting the meat of a sick animal. This is a real concern for the Nenets, since the main source of meat for many is venison: “We usually buy one or two carcasses for the season,” said local resident Ivan (not his real name). “Now we will not only not be able to buy meat, but we will also be afraid to buy fish.”

Against vaccinations

Anyone can get vaccinated against anthrax: ninety thousand doses of the vaccine have been delivered to the region. However, nomadic reindeer herders refuse to consider anthrax a real threat.

According to local media, the child who died from anthrax not only ate contaminated deer meat, but also drank its blood. "This traditional food northern peoples who live in the tundra and are deprived of food diversity. Fresh blood gives them energy,” said Andrey Podluzhnov, a veterinarian and red deer breeder.

According to him, nomads meet civilization twice a year, when they come to sell deer for meat, and do not trust “people with big land". That is why many reindeer herders hide their livestock from recounting, vaccination and slaughter. Despite the fact that, according to the press service of the governor of the Yamalo-Nenets Okrug, they managed to vaccinate 35 thousand reindeer, nomads continue to hide animals as much as possible and divert them from meeting with rescuers and military:

“For the peoples of the north, the deer is practically a totem animal. The entire life of a reindeer herder is centered around it. For a nomad, losing a deer means losing everything. This is their bread, home, transport. Reindeer herders do not know how to do anything else. The livestock can be reduced greatly: by about three-quarters "And it is extremely difficult to restore the population. For the local population it will be a humanitarian catastrophe,"

Andrey Podluzhnov emphasized.

There is no threat to other regions

The causative agent of anthrax can penetrate through water and dust raised from the surface of the soil from the region that is the source of infection. Despite this, experts note that the likelihood of such an infection is extremely low. In the quarantine zone, doctors recommend drinking bottled water or from underground sources. Yamal authorities also warned local residents that picking berries and mushrooms in the forest is now extremely dangerous.

As for other regions of Russia, the most likely carrier of the infection could be birds. But those birds that are now on nesting grounds in the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug, will fly to wintering grounds in Southeast Asia, India and Australia, told RIA Novosti Doctor of Biological Sciences, Professor of Moscow State University named after M.V. Lomonosova Irina Boehme. According to her, the only precedent when birds hypothetically became carriers of the virus was during the bird flu epidemic, but this fact could not be proven one hundred percent.

For the first time in 75 years. More than a thousand reindeer died. A vast area of ​​tundra is under quarantine. Families of reindeer herders and their herds are being evacuated from there. Women and children have already been taken to hospitals and are being examined. Doctors will monitor their condition.

The Yamal tundra is now a quarantine zone. Local residents were not happy about the news of the urgent evacuation. Hastily packing things and dismantling the plagues - forced fatal disease. Tundra has become More than 1,200 deer have already been killed. This is the first time this has happened here in 75 years.

To assess the scale of the disaster, experts are examining the epicenter of the outbreak from the air. Massive deaths of livestock were recorded in several camps at once. The cause of it all was anthrax. This has already been confirmed by experts.

“In our country, this disease has been encountered for a long time. And now we have registered more than thirty-five thousand anthrax burial sites according to the cadastre. That is, these are the places where anthrax spores are found in the soil,” notes Yulia Demina, deputy head of the epidemiological department supervision of Rospotrebnadzor.

Perhaps the deer, in search of food, stumbled upon the remains of a long-dead animal. The infection spread quite quickly. “We are making a large cattle burial ground, when the equipment comes up, sprinkle it with bleach, fence it off and mark a point in the navigator, and here it will be generally impossible to graze animals for 25 years according to the instructions,” says Vyacheslav Khritin, head of the Salekhard Veterinary Center.

In the near future, specialists will begin to destroy the corpses of infected deer. Doing this in the tundra is quite problematic. “A large amount of fuel is required - about 100 tons. It’s not easy to deliver, but we have found options. We will deliver in barrels by land and air,” complains Dmitry Kobylkin, governor of the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug.

To save healthy animals, additional vaccination is carried out. . Doctors are on duty in the quarantine zone around the clock. No infection among people has yet been identified. Today, women and children were sent from the camps on a special plane - they were taken to the Yar-Sala hospital. Here they undergo an examination; Moscow experts will make a conclusion based on the analysis. “The baby feels fine, when we arrived by helicopter her temperature rose. Now she seems to feel normal, the temperature has dropped,” says Irina Salinder, a doctor, about her little patient.

The governor of Yamal also went to visit patients from the risk zone today. The best specialists will provide all necessary support to the victims. A batch of anthrax vaccine is already being prepared for shipment to Yamal - more than thousands of doses of the drug. Despite the fact that about 60 people were at risk, residents of neighboring camps will also be vaccinated.

“This pathogen, it can be in the form of a spore, it can lie in the ground for centuries, nothing will happen to it, it can wait for its moment, this form of spore. Therefore, they appear from cattle burial grounds since the time of Ivan the Terrible, these maps are already lost, and the cattle burial grounds remain. Therefore, well, from time to time people get infected like this,” explains Vladimir Nikiforov, chief infectious disease specialist at the Federal Medical and Biological Agency of the Russian Federation.

Moreover, infection is possible only from sick animals. Anthrax is not transmitted from person to person. And the disease, according to experts, is quite typical for Russia, outbreaks occur every year. For animals it all ends in death, for humans it ends in therapy. Gone Soviet years when the infection was more difficult to defeat. Most often it appears as painless ulcers on the skin and is treated with antibiotics. It is important not to damage the ulcer itself. Otherwise, a generalized form may occur, which is much more difficult to treat. In severe cases, everything ends in death.