Russian forces scramble to open infectious response in Mariupol - mayoral adviser

Espreso reported the news.

"As for the cholera situation, everything is developing quite dynamically. The problem is expected to get worse. On the one hand, the Russian military are doing almost nothing to prevent an outbreak, because it can be not only cholera, but any infectious disease," he said. 

The Russian military reported in their sources that the epidemiological threat was disinformation.

"But last night we received information that someone had been reached there and they were urgently preparing an infectious disease unit at the ambulance hospital. It seems that an infectious disease doctor from Siberia has even arrived, ie the occupiers themselves understand that the epidemic may be real. Although the pace at which they are trying to do something, they are so slow and far from the measures that need to be implemented urgently that it does not reduce the risks," said the mayor's adviser.

Andryushchenko explained that the waters of the Sea of ​​Azov have Vibrio cholerae and it becomes active every year, but never in the last 10 years has it been dangerous for humans. It seems that in 2012 alone there were about 10-15 cases of cholera in Mariupol, then a separate cholera hospital was built.

"Cholera basically lives in the Sea of ​​Azov. And the only question here is what condition it is in, and it depends on how we care for the sea, how safe it is on the coast. Given the fact that now the safety of people in Mariupol isn't at all in terms of hygiene and sanitation. Everyone understands that living among corpses in a city where the sewerage system hasn't been working for several months, garbage is rotting on the streets - these are definitely not the conditions to avoid any infectious disease," said the mayor's adviser.