This week the Financial Times is running its global health outlook section, and the journalist Miriam Elder (whom you may know from Moscow Times and PostGlobal) has probably the most unique and hard-hitting report: a first person account from a Moscow doctor who contracts tuberculosis, one of Russia's deadliest pandemics.
According to USAID, Russia ranks 12th on the list of 22 high-burden tuberculosis countries in the world, claiming the lives of 288,250 people between 1998-2007. In late August, the Washington Post reported on the increased spread of new strains of drug-resistant TB in Russia, sped along by government missteps and causing infection levels in the Far East of the country to rise above three times the epidemic classification from the United Nations.
This FT report hits close to home for us, following the state's treatment of the former Yukos general counsel Vasily Alexanyan.
According to USAID, Russia ranks 12th on the list of 22 high-burden tuberculosis countries in the world, claiming the lives of 288,250 people between 1998-2007. In late August, the Washington Post reported on the increased spread of new strains of drug-resistant TB in Russia, sped along by government missteps and causing infection levels in the Far East of the country to rise above three times the epidemic classification from the United Nations.
This FT report hits close to home for us, following the state's treatment of the former Yukos general counsel Vasily Alexanyan.
While serving hard time in pre-trial detention, though he had broken no
law, Vasily contracted both tuberculosis and HIV AIDS. The prosecutors
saw an opportunity for extortion,
and withheld life-saving medical treatments from the prisoner in order
to medically blackmail him into providing false testimony against
Mikhail Khodorkovsky. That must be some strong case that the
government has against him if this is what they need to do. Alexanyan
has been released now, but far too late to make any difference in his
rapidly expiring life.
At any rate, Elder's piece makes for gripping reading, giving us just a glimpse of the kind of terror he must have gone through, along with tens of thousands of other Russian citizens dealing with TB:
At any rate, Elder's piece makes for gripping reading, giving us just a glimpse of the kind of terror he must have gone through, along with tens of thousands of other Russian citizens dealing with TB:
When I look back, I can see I had symptoms for a while. I started to have sweats and to cough, and I was losing weight. But I just thought I was tired or eating badly.
One night, I lay down to sleep and I started to cough. I went to the bathroom and started coughing up blood. A lot. That's when I really got scared. I didn't sleep the whole night. I stayed up thinking what could be wrong. (...)
I didn't go to the doctor because, at the time, I was working in a private clinic and they didn't offer us insurance. A doctor without insurance - that's Russia.
When I discovered my treatment was not working, I changed the pills, and started giving myself injections.
Throughout, I kept working, which was really hard. These medicines are very hard to handle. Some made me really drowsy; some made me really nauseous. Twice a day I was giving myself injections in my legs, which meant they really hurt. But I still hid everything and told no one.
Then, when it got really tough, I quit my job, telling my employer I had found another that paid more. And I told my family I'd taken a sabbatical. I tricked everyone.
