1/ Mobilised Russians in Sverdlovsk region are suffering from a mass outbreak of infectious disease, but doctors are unable to treat them due to a lack of equipment and medicine. This is likely the result of overcrowded, insanitary conditions at their training area. ⬇️
2/ The independent Russian SOTA news outlet reports that there has been a mass outbreak of an unknown respiratory illness (possibly COVID) among mobilised men at the Elanskii training area, 129 km east of Yekaterinburg. According to SOTA:
3/ "Local doctors are not provided with the minimum necessary equipment and patients are not provided with medicines.
Thus, doctors ask through volunteers to buy them 3 professional phonendoscopes [a type of stethoscope].
Thus, doctors ask through volunteers to buy them 3 professional phonendoscopes [a type of stethoscope].
4/ And volunteers collect medicines from a wide list which includes not only the usual cold remedies like nasal drops and throat lozenges, but also analgin, amoxicillin, drotaverine (NO-SPA), lidocaine, etc.
5/ The authorities do not acknowledge and do not comment on the illnesses of the mobilised."
SOTA notes that the mobilised men are living in extremely crowded conditions, apparently in some kind of sports hall, which has likely contributed to the spread of disease.
SOTA notes that the mobilised men are living in extremely crowded conditions, apparently in some kind of sports hall, which has likely contributed to the spread of disease.
6/ This isn't the first time that health problems have been reported at Elanskii. A mass outbreak of lice among the mobilised was reported in October-November. As one man put it:
7/ "The lice are eating away at me, I'm exhausted. Everyone walks around itching all the time. There are not enough washing facilities as the military camp was not designed for such a large number of people.
8/ Sometimes we manage to come to an agreement with locals who rent out their bathrooms by the hour. People get together in groups, pool their money and go for a bath."
(A mobile bathing facility was reportedly installed after the lice outbreak was reported by the media.)
(A mobile bathing facility was reportedly installed after the lice outbreak was reported by the media.)
9/ Three mobilised men are reported to have died at Elanskii after health problems: one had a heart attack, another died of cirrhosis of the liver, and a third died of suicide. This was blamed on compulsory medical examinations of the mobilised not being carried out.
10/ It's also not the first time that mass outbreaks of infectious disease have occurred in Russian military training sites. In late 2013, at least one soldier died and as many as 1,000 may have been infected in an outbreak of pneumonia at the Omsk Armoured Engineering Institute.
11/ Following the outbreak, the unit's medical head hanged himself. This was the second mass outbreak in 2 years at the facility in Ostrogozhsk, which was caused by failures that likely have echoes in the Elanskii outbreak.
12/ The 2011 Ostrogozhsk outbreak caused 686 soldiers to fall ill, with two deaths. A subsequent investigation found the unit's commander, Colonel Alexander Tsybulnikov, guilty of violating sanitary and epidemiological norms, which caused mass illness.
13/ He was found to have allowed overcrowding of living quarters and the medical unit at Ostrogozhsk, and when the severity of the situation became obvious, he did not deploy an additional isolation ward in time.
14/ Despite this experience, the unit's hospital was closed down in the spring of 2013 and the unit no longer received enough medicines. When a new outbreak of pneumonia broke out in late 2013, "all employees, except conscripts, were asked to urgently chip in for medicines."
15/ Overcrowding is very likely also a factor in Elanskii, and the reported lack of medical equipment and medicines suggests that the local medical facilities have similarly been neglected. The Russian army doesn't seem to have learned the lessons from previous outbreaks. /end
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