Marina Patyashina: ‘In 2023, Tatarstan had infections that were on everyone’s lips’

In 2023, the number of Tatarstan residents who were diagnosed infections reduced by 20%. At the same time, the incidence excluding acute viral respiratory infections, flu and COVID-19 rose by 11%. Head of the republican office of Russia’s consumer rights protection Marina Patyashina.

“In 2023, Tatarstan had infections that were on everyone’s lips. Measles is the first infection. Unvaccinated people are infected with it, and one in two of them is a migrant. Even our citizens who got measles brought the infection from abroad in 70% of the cases or after visiting other Russian regions. However, 95% of the patients hadn’t been vaccinated,” she said.

Whooping cough, according to Patyashina, became the second infection. She specified that one in two kids from 7 to 14 years had whooping cough last year. “Since there is no revaccination for children in the national vaccination agenda at this age, we created it at regional level,” she said.

As the head of the regional office of Russia’s consumer rights protection watchdog noted, 30.000 children were revaccinated in Tatarstan in 2023. The work on this area will continue in 2024 as well, she added.

“The third infection is epidemic hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome. We have seen a cyclic rise since 2022. The incidence increased by 16% last year,” Patyashina concluded.

As for the number of citizens who had flu, it augmented 4.5 times in 2023. According to the regional director of the watchdog, this also had an impact on the general pattern of the incidence. Talking about group incidence, she noted that 14 groups cases of the disease were registered in the republic in 2023, 128 people had it. “It is 2.5 times less than in 2022. Interestingly, 60% of cases appeared in schools, kindergartens and food outlets. This happened because sick employees were allowed to work. Working in such a state they didn’t follow sanitary requirements and personal hygiene rules,” she added.

Earlier this year, Russia’s consumer rights protection watchdog and the Smorodintsev Institute of Influenza said that influence, COVID-19 and acute viral respiratory infections started to spread across Russia at the same time. According to the specialists, such a situation means a tridemic began that will start to decline not earlier than February-March.

It should be reminded that in the first week of 2024, 11.005 cases of acute viral respiratory infection and 544 influenza cases were registered in the capital of Tatarstan. 6.775 cases of the disease were diagnosed among adults. Nowadays the average incidence is 57% up. To compare, this number was 131% from 18 to 24 December.

According to the latest data, 961 people were diagnosed coronavirus in Tatarstan from 8 to 14 January. A total of 219.869 COVID-19 cases were diagnosed in the republic since the start of the pandemic. 111 patients were hospitalised in a week, 1.125 people recovered. 216.790 Tatarstan residents recovered since the beginning of the pandemic. There weren’t registered any deaths.