It is never quite at the RSPC. It is always crowded here. People come to examination and treatment from far, from all regions of Belarus. A lot of Russians look to medical workers for help. Bryansk citizen Alexander Shilov also came to Gomel for the precise diagnosis:
— Problems with immunity: suffer from different allergies. Wanted to go to Moscow for examination. But my cousin lives in Gomel, she has similar problems. She told me that the single in Belarus department for immunology and allergology is operating at the RSPC of radiation medicine. She persuaded me to come. I hope that doctors will help me.
The idea of creating a specialized medical institution at the affected territories emerged at once after the disaster at the Chernobyl NPS. The BSSR was chosen. But with disappearance of a big country, big projects also ceased to exist. At the beginning of the 2000s, a forgotten idea was returned to.
In December, 2003 a new complex received new patients. The project, revived by Belarusians, was supported in the Union State, including with the help of budget funds. Today medical assistance is provided at the center on 19 directions in 10 departments. Per year, more than 13 thousand people undergo hospital treatment, up to 70 thousand people from 26 countries — polyclinic treatment.
According to world methods
...Renal transplantation is carried out at the operating room. A 40-years old Gomel citizen suffered from glomerulonephritis, which turned into nephatony. And it means constant connection to the haemodialysis apparatus. Now he will have the possibility to begin to live again, as they speak. Transplantology is a special marker of the medicine development level, thinks Oleg Petkevich, head of the RSPC transplantation coordination service:
— Transplantation is not only an operation at the close control equipment by qualified specialists. It is organizing of the organ recovery service where legal, technical, time aspects are taken into account. Such a service has been created at our place and is working rather good, 160 renal transplantation operations have been carried out at the RSPC.
One more achievement of the medical workers of the center is survivability after thyroid cancer operations — 99%. Namely this health problem was precipitated in many cases by Chernobyl radiation.
The world index is very high
Haemotologist Irina Romashevskaya has been working at the Gomel center already for twelve years, practically from the day of its opening. Today she heads the hematology department for children. One of the best at the post-Soviet space. The treatment effectiveness criterion is the most rigid — survivability. The second chance is given to hundreds of children. During the work of the center, the doctors gained new possibilities to save people, says Irina Romashevskaya:
— The main thing is that today we have more possibilities to disclose a disease at the earliest stage and to predict its development. Owing to what? Modern laboratory equipment and world methods allow to define genetic markers (subtypes) of cacoethic blood diseases quickly and quite precisely. We, doctors, gained the possibility ‘to see the disease in its face’.
What is there on the map? The genetic one
Today the RSPC of radiation medicine is the base for international scientific researches and conferences. At direct participation of talented Gomel scientists, the Single Russian-Belarussian Chernobyl Register has been created, which is an information basis of the organization of rendering targeted specialized medical aid.
Owing to own methods, doctors in the center can not only diagnose but also predict the disease even at the relatively health human, told us director of the Republican Scientific and Practical Center for Radiation Medicine and Human Ecology Alexander Rozhko:
— For example, there is a possibility to detect the people with high risk to develop breast cancer and ovarian carcinoma. To form potential risk groups, which at planned prophylaxis can minimize bad after-effects of these diseases. Geneticists are working at detecting the markers of acute and chronical oncological diseases of blood. The data base of diseases of the people, living in the regions, affected from the accident on the CNPS, has been formed and is constantly updated. It allows to analyze influence of radiation contamination on the human organism in the long-term period — 20, 30, 50 years.
By the way, unique researches at the laboratory of molecular genetics gave the possibility to diagnose genetic diseases characteristic for the Belarusian ethnos. But these are genetic indices that can be ‘read’ only by specialists.
By the way
From 1998 to 2010, three programmes of the Union State for overcoming the consequences of the catastrophe have been implemented. The total amount of financing made up more than 3.5 billion Russian Roubles. Owing to this programmes, there have been created the single regulatory space and general systems of rendering specialized medical aid to the citizens of two countries, affected from the accident. The Atlas of modern and predictive aspects of consequences of the accident at the CNPS has been created, including cartographic, analytical and reference material of modern condition and prognosis of radioactive contaminations for the period up to 2056.
Also there has been carried out reconstruction of the Medical Radiological Scientific Center of the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences in Obninsk, reconstruction and fitting with equipment of the All-Russian Center of Emergency and Radiation Medicine in Saint-Petersburg. Grodno Plant of Medical Preparations in Skidel and the Republican Scientific and Practical Center for Radiation Medicine and Human Ecology in Gomel have been created and fitted with participation of the Union State. The Single Russian-Belarussian Chernobyl Register has been created, which is an information basis of the organization of rendering targeted specialized medical aid.
In 2016 results of the fourth ‘Chernobyl’ programme will be drawn. The budget is more than 1.3 billion Russian Roubles. Targeted specialized medical aid has been rendered to more than 8000 liquidators of the consequences at the Chernobyl NPS in the course of this programme carrying out.
By Stanislav Galkovsky
