Disturbing health statistics from nuclear Semipalatinsk

A former nuclear testing area in Semipalatinsk, a town in northern Kazakhstan, continues to adversely affect the health of the local population, particularly pregnant women, new figures show. Nine out of ten pregnant women in the town and in some rural areas nearby are suffering from various diseases due to their immunity system being weak. "Only 10 out of every 100 pregnant women [in Semipalatinsk] are healthy," Rashida Galimulina, the head of the Semipalatinsk perinatal centre, told IRIN from Semipalatinsk, adding that main diseases affecting pregnant women were blood related, like anaemia, along with urinary and genital infections, and kidney diseases stemming from very week immunity. Some 60 percent of the pregnant women in the region were suffering anaemia, she added. Along with anaemia and infection there were different pathologies during the pregnancies, and some 45 percent of pregnant women treated at the perinatal centre in Semipalatinsk had been diagnosed as having hestosis, a type of obstetrical complication, Galimulina noted. "Hestosis itself might not affect, but it has very bad complications and every [case of] maternal mortality is related to it," she said, adding that 60 percent of infants were born with different diseases, which were mainly related to hestosis as well. She also noted that one of the widely encountered problems in the region, particularly in rural areas, was intra-uterine chronic hypoxia because of an underdeveloped placenta as a result of the mother being not healthy. Galimulina said that there was no laboratory in the town [of Semipalatinsk] calpable of detecting those infections and enabling them to treat the infections effectively. As a result, they had to combine some medicines, antibiotics and anti-inflammation preparations, which was very expensive for women and they couldn't afford that, she said. Commenting on the gravity of the problem, Bekbay Hayrulin, the head of the mother and child health section at the Kazakh health ministry told IRIN from the capital Astana that figures given by Galimulina were more or less reflecting the situation on the ground. He also said that health index of women was indeed very low ranging from 15 to 20 percent and this figure was even lower in some regions. Regarding the main causes of the issue, Galimulina said that they related to socio-economic factors and the issue of weak immunity. "The main cause is the social factor, which is always on the first place. The second is that we have very low immunity probably because of our [former nuclear] testing area," she said, adding that local people's immunity was almost zero and infections didn't show themselves by high temperatures and other symptoms developing without any visible signs and causing damage to women's bodies. She said that infections and other health problems showed themselves up only when a woman was pregnant. "Pregnancy is in a way an indicator of women's health," she explained. Galimulina said that the situation in the nearby Beskaragai district, close to the area where the nuclear tests were carried out, was one of the worst, as most problematic pregnancies and deliveries were among women from that place. "The [nuclear] testing area not only has weakened our immunity, but it also badly affected blood system that sometimes we cannot cope with bleeding [pregnant women]," she said. However, her colleague from the health ministry Hayrulin, said that as of today there wasn't a confirmed link between the health problems of pregnant women in the region and the former nuclear testing area as there were no specific researches on the issue with results proving that. "We take into consideration the testing area and presume [its affect] as well, but there are no direct proofs of that," he said. Moreover, Galimulina said that there was another problem, namely lack of diagnostic resources, particularly in terms of the bacteriological laboratory. "It [laboratory facilities] is on such a low level that we diagnose on the same level as [they do] in villages," she said. However, she noted that the Kazakh authorities were trying to do their best to tackle the issue, stating that they had been provided with some equipment along with the budget being increased three times, particularly for medicines. She emphasised the importance of that development as most of the pregnant women couldn't afford to buy medicines. Health officials also called on international organisations and aid agencies to assist in obtaining comprehensive diagnostic equipment, including bacteriological laboratory and reagents as well as other necessary items. Galimulina also said that the problems of iron-deficiency anaemia and lack of iodine could be tackled by the fortification of food, while the number of iodine deficiency- related diseases was growing. Meanwhile, the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) in cooperation with World Health Organisation (WHO) is conducting a regional project with the aim of studying the impact of radioactivity on the reproductive health of women in Semipalatinsk. The project is expected to be completed by the end of 2003 and become available by early 2004.