Andrew Osborn

Moscow smog and nationwide heat wave claim thousands of lives

An unprecedented heat wave, combined with a deadly outbreak of fierce forest fires, has sparked a public health crisis in Moscow, the Russian capital, where the daily death rate has doubled in recent weeks. At least 52 people across Russia have died in the fires, and Moscow has been shrouded in a thick layer of smog, caused by scores of forest and peat bog fires ringing the Russian capital, which has made being outdoors hazardous. Carbon monoxide levels have, at times, exceeded the acceptable level by almost seven times. City residents have complained …

Beer is no longer food for Russians

Beer is to be legally classified as an alcoholic drink in Russia for the first time as the Kremlin shuts a loophole that has allowed brewers to avoid sweeping anti-alcohol regulation. The beverage is technically classified as a foodstuff now and many ordinary Russians regard it as little more than a soft drink compared to vodka, which they view as real alcohol. It is an anomaly that has led to beer being widely available on almost every street corner at outdoor kiosks, making it difficult to stop sales to underage drinkers. Its …

Russia declares “total war” on the country’s drug problem

The Kremlin has declared what it calls a “total war” on Russia’s drug problem and is drawing up changes in the law that would give drug addicts a stark choice: forced treatment or jail. In a move that harks back to the Soviet Union’s hardline approach to the problem, the government says it also wants to treat drug dealers “like serial killers” and jail them for life, forcing them to toil in harsh labour camps. “There is no time to lose. Our self preservation is at stake,” said Boris Gryzlov, the speaker of Russia’s lower house of parliament and a senior figure in the ruling United Russia party. …

Ukraine must loosen drugs policy to allow patients access to oral morphine, says report

Tens of thousands of people with cancer in Ukraine are being condemned to live their final months in excruciating pain because oral morphine is not available, a report has concluded. The report, from New York based Human Rights Watch, estimates that up to 80 000 cancer patients in Ukraine had severe pain every year as a result of the country’s controversial public health policy. “There is no reason people have to live out their last months in torment,” said Diederik Lohman, a senior health researcher at Human Rights Watch. “Ukraine needs to fix its …

Russians are unable to buy aspirin, paracetamol, and other basic drugs because of official bungle

Russian consumers are unable to obtain hundreds of types of basic drugs, tablets, and pharmaceutical products in their local chemist because of a bureaucratic snag. The problem concerns the country’s government approved list of 522 pharmaceutical products officially classified as “essential for life.” The government regulates the prices of the products on the list to keep them affordable for most of the population. It also guarantees that all state medical institutions will stock them. But the prices and names of the products on the list …

Russia proposes strict limits on abortions to boost population.

A bill has been introduced into the Russian parliament that would sharply curb the availability of abortions in an attempt to reverse the country’s chronic depopulation crisis. In a controversial move backed by the Russian Orthodox church, the draft legislation proposes that the country’s public health service stop offering abortions altogether, forcing women who want an abortion to pay for one at a private clinic. If passed, the same bill would limit advertising of abortion services to specialist magazines only and enshrine in law a doctor’s right to refuse to perform the procedure for a large number of reasons. The most contentious part of the new …

WHO officials press Russia to consider needle exchanges to reduce spread of HIV

The World Health Organization is urging Russia to change its controversial approach to tackling HIV and AIDS, suggesting that it consider embracing methods such as needle exchange programmes for injecting drug users. WHO officials made the suggestion in private meetings with Russian officials at the annual conference of the organisation’s regional committee for Europe, held in Moscow last week. The event, which was attended by Vladimir Putin, the Russian prime minister, heard how Russia has the highest incidence of HIV among the 53 countries that make up the …

Russia is to crack down on sales of alcohol

Russia is to ban the sale of spirits in Moscow’s shops after 10 pm as part of the toughest anti-alcohol campaign since the fall of the Soviet Union. The move, part of a government strategy to more than halve the nationwide consumption of alcohol in the next decade, will take effect on 1 September. The law will make it illegal for the Russian capital’s supermarkets, shops, and kiosks to sell vodka and other spirits containing 15% or more of alcohol from 10 pm to 10 am. Current rules in Moscow ban the sale of vodka from 11 …

Russia embarks on £10bn reform of its “deplorable” health system

Russia is embarking on the biggest reform of its troubled healthcare sector—described by Vladimir Putin, the prime minister, as “deplorable”—by making radical changes to the compulsory medical insurance system that was introduced in the early 1990s. Major changes in the way that health care is delivered across Russia are also planned, and the government has promised more money for the chronically underfunded sector in general. Under the reforms, compulsory medical insurance contributions paid by employers on behalf of their employees will be increased from 3.1% of salary to 5.1% in the next two …

Human rights group accuses Russian government of hampering efforts to tackle HIV/AIDS

The Russian government has been accused of exacerbating the countrys deepening HIV/AIDS crisis by denying basic prevention services to those most at risk and by systematically discriminating against anyone who is infected. In its report, Human Rights Watch (a New York based non-governmental organisation) claims that the Russian governments policy is actually fuelling the epidemic rather than helping to keep a lid on it. Human Rights Watch says that the governments behaviour is extremely irresponsible, considering the scale of the problem. Russian government figures (considered to be conservative) show that up to 1.2 million people in Russia …