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. A fatal disease forced them to hastily pack their things and dismantle the plagues. 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 reason for everything 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. "Required a large number of fuel - about 100 tons. It’s not easy to deliver, but we found options. We will import barrels by land and air transport,” 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. All necessary support will be provided to the victims the best specialists. 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.
Specialists from the radiation, chemical and biological protection troops arrived in Yamal, 200 people in total. 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.
Everyone tried to contain the anthrax outbreak possible ways. 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 of Russia, Anna Popova, arrived in the district. 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.
The reindeer herders of the Purovsky district are also relatively prosperous. 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 full swing Preparations are underway for the disposal of dead animals. Specialists from Mainland. 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.
The number of people hospitalized from an anthrax outbreak in Yamal has increased from nine to 13 people, mostly children, local authorities report.
“Four more tundra dwellers from the Yamal tundra were brought to the Salekhard Clinical Hospital for additional examination and observation,” TASS quoted the press service of the region’s governor, Dmitry Kobylkin, as saying.
“Medical staff are conducting proactive treatment and awaiting final tests from experts from Moscow. At the same time, children are undergoing preventive examinations for the presence of other diseases,” the department said.
It is noted that representatives of the government of the Yamal-Nenets Autonomous Okrug and the district’s health department are in constant contact with the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation and relevant federal departments.
On this moment over 20 people work at the outbreak site different specialists, air ambulance is on duty around the clock. “At a distance of 80 km from the site, six 10-person tents from the material reserve of the Yamal-Nenets Autonomous Okrug have already been deployed in case of emergency. safe place helicopters transport primarily women and children. Some heads of nomadic families - no more than 10 people - expressed their intention to stay to help veterinarians and sanitary specialists,” the press service added.
It is also reported that 500 deer were vaccinated against anthrax on Monday. “Today (specialists will work until late at night) 2.5 thousand will be vaccinated and tomorrow, July 27 - 1 thousand. Vaccination is carried out in a portable corral, which was delivered to the territory by helicopter the day before,” the press service notes. In addition, places are being prepared for the disposal of dead deer.
An anthrax outbreak recorded in Yamal for the first time in 75 years. To date, more than 1.5 thousand reindeer have died from it. A quarantine has been introduced in the Yamal region, the authorities assure that there is no threat to the population.
According to preliminary data from the authorities, the cause of infection of the deer was an unusual warm summer. For a month, Yamal experienced abnormal heat - up to 35 degrees above zero. " The thawed tundra contributed to the emergence of the source of infection- the remains of an animal that died long ago, reports the website of the governor of the Yamal-Nenets Autonomous Okrug. “The deer in this area were extremely weakened due to the heat, which contributed to their infection.”
According to Rosselkhoznadzor, sporadic cases of anthrax disease in animals are registered in Russia: every year two or three points unfavorable for the disease and from two to seven sick animals are identified. Moreover, between 2009 and 2014, 40 cases of human anthrax were registered in the country (43% more than in the previous five years) in three federal districts: 20 in the North Caucasus, 11 in Siberian and nine - in Yuzhny.
In 2015, three residents of the Balashovsky district of the Saratov region were diagnosed with anthrax. It turned out that all three participated in the slaughter of the bull.
Anthrax is a particularly dangerous infectious disease of agricultural and wild animals of all types, as well as humans. The source of infection is wild animals and livestock; the disease is not transmitted from person to person.
Infection occurs through contact; the incubation period of the disease lasts on average three to five days. The disease progresses at lightning speed and is characterized by hemorrhagic inflammation of the skin, lymph nodes and internal organs.
The military burns down the housing of reindeer herders The report of the epidemic was delayed for five weeks Veronika Skvortsova became addicted to antibiotics after visiting Yamal The corpses of sick animals are left as gifts for descendants
Units of biological defense troops are being deployed to Yamal to combat the largest outbreak of anthrax, reports Ura.ru. Currently, 250 military personnel are already working in the region, burning the corpses of dead animals and the property of reindeer herders in the contaminated area. The borders of this territory are equipped with sanitary checkpoints with the condition of disinfection during passage.
At the same time, new tents for reindeer herders are being built in the clean zone. The planes of the Ministry of Emergency Situations are arriving in Salekhard, delivering rescuers and things for arranging temporary housing for the reindeer herders. They brought In addition, the planes brought 40 thousand signs warning about the danger of infection and fuel supplies for burning corpses and plagues.
Anthrax in Yamal was officially announced on July 25. On August 1, the press service of the district governor reported that the diagnosis of anthrax was confirmed in eight Yamal nomads, including three children. The district government later confirmed the death of a 12-year-old boy from anthrax. On August 2, 90 people were already in Yamal hospitals with suspected anthrax, including 54 children.
Anthrax bacilli. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2009
The epidemic in the region began after the death of one and a half thousand deer in the Yamal region. Scientists have determined that the cause of death of the animals was anthrax. Later, another 600 deer died in the Tazovsky region. According to the latest data, a total of 2,349 deer died from anthrax in the Yamal region, and another 4.5 thousand are in the danger zone.
Five weeks of silence
“The report on anthrax in Yamal was five weeks late,” said Nikolai Vlasov, deputy head of Rosselkhoznadzor. He criticized the actions of the Yamal authorities to prevent an anthrax outbreak. “Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug is not the poorest region, but veterinary care for animals is not good, very weak. Veterinarians learned about the anthrax epidemic five weeks after it began. Reindeer herders without reliable communications, one of them walked across the tundra for four days to notify about the emergency,” says Vlasov. The official added that everything that is now happening in the region “is similar to how an airport is protected after a terrorist attack.”
Nikolai Vlasov pointed out that the largest outbreak hides a huge danger for future generations, because it is not possible to dispose of deer corpses in a timely manner: “Now we need to burn 150 corpses a day. They will last 20-30 days before they are burned.” The situation is complicated by the fact that cattle burial grounds cannot be made in the tundra, since “in permafrost the pathogen will be like in a refrigerator.” And rapid burning of corpses is difficult due to the lack of roads, which delays the transportation of flammable materials.
Screenshot from YiuTube, 2016 The deputy head of Rosselkhoznadzor emphasized that “non-vaccination of animals is the choice of the subjects of the Federation.” In his opinion, the leadership of the region is leaving anthrax as a legacy “for future generations - all this will be preserved to no one knows how long.”
On August 2, Health Minister Veronika Skvortsova arrived in Yamal. The next day, she and Governor Dmitry Kobylkin visited the contaminated areas, where they interacted with the sick. The head of the Ministry of Health is currently undergoing antibiotic therapy. “In order for the vaccine to take effect, you need to wait a few days - this is the same incubation period, which ranges from 3 to 7 days,” explained the minister. “I didn’t have this opportunity, but when I examined the patients, I was in the correct anti-epidemic outfit, with gloves, boots, a mask, and so on. However, all doctors who work with patients are now on chemoprophylaxis.”
Contagious delicacies
Due to the anthrax outbreak in Yamal, hunting and picking mushrooms and berries are prohibited. “The infection came from the soil, so it may appear somewhere with mycelium. The danger, given the presence of pestilence fields, exists. We discussed wild plants with doctors and the authorities of the region; it is also necessary to take definitely restrictive measures. We won’t be lost without these mushrooms, but we will live with normal health,” said Vladimir Shevkoplyas, director of the veterinary department of the Russian Ministry of Agriculture. The infection can be spread by insects, birds and scavengers that eat deer that have died from the disease.
Meanwhile, experts fear that anthrax-contaminated reindeer meat from Yamal could spread throughout the country. This opinion was expressed to URA.Ru by the President of the International Counterterrorism Association, Joseph Linder.
“Today it is necessary to make every effort to ensure that the meat of deer that have contracted anthrax is not sold,” Linder is confident. - This is how it happens here - unscrupulous businessmen are ready to buy this meat for pennies, on the cheap, and then put it on sale. This life-threatening product must not be allowed to end up on store shelves and in restaurants.”
Meditations, 2006 He recalled that a huge number of deer will now be slaughtered in the anthrax outbreak zone. “We need to set up cordons, involve the forces of the FSB, the prosecutor’s office, and Rospotrebnadzor, so that contaminated meat does not leave the region. Otherwise, we risk facing a disaster,” warned the president of the International Counter-Terrorism Association. According to him, it is also necessary to “catch” the meat that was sold before the official outbreak in Yamal.
Deadly weapon
The last time an anthrax outbreak was recorded in Yamal was 75 years ago. The source of this infection are domestic animals: large cattle, sheep, goats, pigs. Infection can occur when caring for sick animals, slaughtering livestock, processing meat, as well as through contact with animal products (hides, skins, fur products, wool, bristles) contaminated with spores of the anthrax microbe.
Infection can also occur through soil in which spores of the anthrax pathogen persist for many years. Spores enter the skin through microtraumas; When contaminated foods are consumed, an intestinal form occurs. The high lethality of the pulmonary and intestinal forms, as well as the ability of the pathogen spores to remain viable for many years, are the reason for the use of the anthrax bacillus as a biological weapon.
William Rafti, 2003 The largest epidemic of this disease occurred in 1979 in Sverdlovsk. Since then, small outbreaks of this disease have occurred regularly. Thus, in August 2012, an outbreak of anthrax with fatal cases was recorded in the Altai Territory - in the village of Marushka and the village of Druzhba.
In August 2010, an anthrax outbreak was recorded in the Tyukalinsky district of the Omsk region. The epidemic began with the death of horses on a private farm, which the owners did not report. The dead animals were not even properly buried. As a result, at least six people fell ill, at least one of whom, 49-year-old Alexander Lopatin, died.
Another causative agent of deadly epidemics that regularly reminds of its presence is the plague. On July 12, a ten-year-old boy with bubonic plague was taken to the hospital in the Kosh-Agach district of the Altai Republic. The child was admitted to the infectious diseases department of the district hospital with a temperature of about 40 degrees. The boy was cured. Experts found that he had contact with 17 people, including six children. All of them were placed in isolation, but fortunately none of them got sick. Health workers suggested that the boy could have contracted the plague while camping in the mountains. It is noted that in the region the disease was recorded in marmots.
Bubonic plague - infectious disease, which has carried away more in history human lives than all other diseases combined. Despite all the advances in medicine, it is impossible to completely get rid of the plague, since the causative agent of the disease - the bacterium Yersinia pestis - lives in natural reservoirs, where it infects its main carriers - marmots, gophers and other rodents. These reservoirs exist all over the world and destroying them all is unrealistic.
The woodchuck is a carrier of plague. ablasko, 2012 How smallpox was defeated
In addition, rumors of smallpox cases regularly arise in Russia, although World organization Health officials have officially declared this disease eradicated. However, rumors, as a rule, are not confirmed, and one of the last outbreaks of smallpox was recorded in Moscow in the fifties of the last century. He talks about her:
I got vaccinated today at clinic 13 (it was moved from Neglinnaya to Trubnaya St., 19с1, by the way, a long time ago). While they were waiting for the sister, the doctor, an elderly but cheerful, clear-eyed aunt, told a story about the smallpox epidemic in Moscow in the 50s.
I found it on Wiki and am posting it here:
In the winter of 1959 we found ourselves in a bad situation. Moscow artist Kokorekin visited India. He happened to be present at the burning of a deceased Brahmin. Having gained impressions and gifts for his mistress and wife, he returned to Moscow a day earlier than his wife was waiting for him. He spent this day with his mistress, to whom he gave gifts and in whose arms he spent the night, not without pleasure. Having timed the plane's arrival from Delhi, he arrived home the next day. After giving the gifts to his wife, he felt bad, his temperature rose, his wife called “ Ambulance"and he was taken to the infectious diseases department of the Botkin hospital.
The senior surgeon on duty, Alexey Akimovich Vasiliev, in whose team I was on duty that day, was called for a consultation in the infectious diseases department with Kokorekin, regarding the imposition of a tracheostomy on him due to breathing problems. Vasilyev, having examined the patient, decided that there was no need to apply a tracheostomy and went to the emergency room. By morning the patient became ill and died.
The pathologist who performed the autopsy invited the head of the department, Academician Nikolai Aleksandrovich Kraevsky, into the dissecting room. An old pathologist from Leningrad came to visit Nikolai Alexandrovich and was invited to the dissecting table. The old man looked at the corpse and said, “Yes, my friend, variola vera is black smallpox.” The old man was right.
They reported to Shabanov. The machine of Soviet health care began to spin. They imposed a quarantine on the infectious diseases department, and the KGB began tracing Kokorekin’s contacts. The story of his early arrival in Moscow and a night of bliss with his mistress was revealed. As it turned out, the wife and mistress behaved in the same way - both ran to thrift stores to hand over gifts. There were several cases of smallpox in Moscow that ended in death. The hospital was quarantined, and it was decided to vaccinate the entire population of Moscow with smallpox vaccine.
There was no vaccine in Moscow, but it was available Far East. The weather was bad and no planes were flying. Finally the vaccine arrived and vaccinations began. I suffered it very hard, I did not have immunity against smallpox, although I was vaccinated in 1952, when a smallpox epidemic began in Tajikistan, brought from Afghanistan in the traditional way - carpets were thrown across the border on which patients with smallpox lay.
Update: I found the details here. It turns out that the ill-fated Kokorekin was present not only at the burning of the Brahmin, who definitely died of smallpox, but also the Brahmin’s hut. And I thought - how did he manage to get infected, how? After all, before burning the body is wrapped in several layers of cloth, and heat the fire should have killed all the vibrios. But vibrio is “resistant to the effects external environment, especially to drying and low temperatures. He can long time, for a number of months, persist in crusts and scales taken from pockmarks on the skin of patients” (wiki). In that hut there were millions of flakes of skin and dust with vibrios - that’s how I became infected.
And it was after this incident and thanks to the USSR that they adopted a program to eradicate smallpox throughout the world. In the wild forests of India, tribes were shown photographs of people suffering from smallpox. So they got rid of it!
There is no threat of the anthrax epidemic spreading beyond the quarantine zone. All animals and people are vaccinated. All personnel of the airmobile group of the Ural Rescue Center, as well as contract military personnel who work in the affected area, were also vaccinated. Alexander Ulyev, one of the members of the group of microbiologists who arrived in Yamal, the head of the surveillance and laboratory control network of the Antistikhia Center of the Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations, told an RG correspondent about this by phone.
When asked how dangerous a sharp outbreak is such dangerous disease, Ulyev replied that now we can say with confidence that the infection will not spread further. Several factors suggest this. Firstly, there has been no loss of livestock for several days. Secondly, it was possible to quickly vaccinate almost the entire herd, which is more than 30 thousand deer in the Yamal region. Reindeer herders and their families were also vaccinated. Everyone who is in the area and intends to leave is under surveillance. Incubation period illness has 7 days. And during this period people undergo observation. So you can be sure that no one will bring the disease on themselves or on their clothes to other regions. According to the microbiologist of the Ministry of Emergency Situations, serious control has been established both on the part of rescuers and on the part of the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Natural Resources.
Why did the anthrax outbreak occur in Yamal?
Alexander Uliev: Epidemiologists are still figuring this out. It is now clear that the disease spread to people from livestock. For some reason, it is deer that are most susceptible to rapid infection with ulcers. And, say, cattle, our Russian cows, are more resistant to the disease. It is possible that the spores of the anthrax thawed after being in suspended animation since 1941, when an even more acute outbreak of anthrax was observed in Yamal.
But why specifically in Yamal, since the current heat has affected not only these places?
Alexander Uliev: In other places there are cattle burial grounds where access is closed. And in Yamal in 1941 permafrost no one blew them up, and no one took all the dead cattle to the burial grounds and burned them. Then the corpses of the deer remained lying in the tundra. The spores of the ulcer were frozen, and now they have come to life. I personally see this version of what happened.
Alexander Ulyev did not rule out that the disease was transmitted in 1941 through the harness. In those days, a lot of belts and girths for horses were made from animal skins. Perhaps some of leather goods were made from the skins of sick animals. But then the country had no time for that, and there was no time to figure it out. Now all interested departments are not only sounding the alarm, but are also actively involved in the fight against the spread of the infection.
Today, the press service of the Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations reported that 30 rescuers who arrived the day before from Chelyabinsk began setting up tent camps for reindeer herders evacuated from remote areas.
The tents, bedding sets, stoves and food delivered to Salekhard the day before by the Ministry of Emergency Situations aviation are now being transferred to the village of Yar-Sale, from where the Ministry of Emergency Situations Mi-8 and Mi-26 helicopters will deliver them to the tundra in a clean zone, where the rescuers of the Leader Center will “Eight life support camps will be deployed at the Ural Training and Rescue Center of the Ministry of Emergency Situations,” said Colonel Alexey Vagutovich, head of the press service of the Ministry of Emergency Situations of Russia.
In addition, the press service of the regional governor provided a TASS correspondent with the latest figures on the situation on the peninsula. According to local authorities, in the Yamal region, 200 km north of the village of Yar-Sale, more than 2.3 thousand deer died from anthrax in a remote pasture. The total number of livestock in the quarantine zone exceeds 41 thousand heads. For preventive purposes, 256 people, including 132 children, were evacuated from the reindeer herders’ camp. Of these, 90 people, including 53 children, were hospitalized in the infectious diseases departments of medical institutions in Salekhard and Yar-Sale, according to doctors. Suspected anthrax was detected in 28 people, including 15 children. The area of the buffer zone around the anthrax outbreak in Yamal is 11 thousand square meters. km.
Veterinarians intend to vaccinate the entire Yamal livestock against anthrax - more than 700 thousand heads. First of all, vaccination will cover the herd roaming the Yamal region, where an outbreak of anthrax has been recorded. Next in line are Tazovsky and Priuralsky districts. There is not a single case of illness, but when we're talking about about biological safety, it’s better to play it safe,” the governor’s press service noted.