Russian tourists, who had a less than successful holiday on the Black Sea coast this year, are trying to draw the attention of the authorities to the sanitary situation in the region. According to them, children and adults pick up E. coli by swimming in the sea or just sitting on the beach. At the same time, the Ministry of Health of the Krasnodar Territory and Rospotrebnadzor deny massive outbreaks of infection, writes Newsru.com.
“The situation is simply catastrophic! Having been in Adler with a small child for only 2 days and having swum in the sea, instead of relaxing, we got an intestinal infection and a trip to the infectious diseases hospital on Kirova 50, which turned out to be overcrowded with vacationers, sick children are even lying in the corridors, there are not enough places! Everyone has the same story: they swam in the Adler Black Sea, where sewage is dumped and is infested with E. coli,” writes Norilsk resident Larisa Yangol in an address to Vladimir Putin and Gennady Onishchenko.
According to her, “being with a small child in Adler for only two days and having swam in the sea, instead of resting, we got an intestinal infection and a trip to the infectious diseases hospital, which turned out to be overcrowded with vacationers.” “Sick children are even lying in the corridors, there are not enough places! Everyone has the same story - they swam in Adler's Black Sea, where sewage is dumped and infested with E. coli!<...>And this is in post-Olympic Sochi, where they did everything for the guests of the Olympics, but cannot create conditions for a safe holiday for their children!” - notes the tourist.
At the same time, the regional Ministry of Health and Rospotrebnadzor deny massive outbreaks of infection. The departments claim that no cases of group or outbreak morbidity associated with swimming in the sea, rivers and the use of recreational areas have been registered in the region, Kommersant notes.
The Black Sea is poisoned by a poisonous bacterium. The environmental situation is so catastrophic that hundreds of local residents and tourists turn to doctors every day with complaints of intestinal infection.
On the one hand, everything can be explained by natural causes - dangerous algae began to multiply due to the fact that the water temperature reached an anomalous 29 degrees, and, given the location of the sea, the circulation of water in it is extremely slow, in fact it is a closed reservoir. But experts also name other factors: for example, the excessive activity of officials who, without the necessary base, began to squeeze the maximum out of domestic resorts.
She has few pleasant impressions from her summer holidays: they all fit into a few photographs. 14-year-old Sonya was vacationing on the Black Sea, but this year it was not too kind to her. After just a couple of swims, she came down with an acute infection. According to the girl, the water was warm and dirty, jellyfish and even bottles were floating in it.
Similar situations happen everywhere. Hospitals in resort towns are packed to capacity: there is only one diagnosis - acute intestinal infection. Many of those who decided to spend their long-awaited vacation on the beaches of Adler, Anapa or Gelendzhik literally find themselves in hospital beds on the second day.
“The situation is simply catastrophic: after swimming in the sea, instead of relaxing, we got an intestinal infection and a trip to an infectious diseases hospital, which turned out to be overcrowded with vacationers. Everyone has the same story: we swam in the Adler Black Sea, where sewage is dumped and is infested with E. coli,”- the petition says.
The situation in resort towns really raises concerns, even health officials do not hide: hospital beds are filled exclusively with vacationers.
On the Sochi beach, as always, there is nowhere to lay a towel. The velvet season is in full swing, and the flow of tourists does not stop. Even these frightening numbers don’t stop holidaymakers: the water temperature is 27 degrees, and two weeks ago it almost reached 30. For the Black Sea, this is an exorbitant figure. However, doctors report: you can swim in such water. And vacationers are happy to follow these recommendations. It’s just that after swimming like this, tourists often have to exchange beach beds for beds in infectious diseases departments.
Another problem typical of coastal towns is the irresponsibility of local residents and businessmen. Numerous hotels, restaurants, shops and residential buildings are simply not connected to the central sewer system. The authorities, of course, are fighting this, but not everyone follows their instructions. In many resort areas, tourists literally swim in their own excrement.
“Very often with my own eyes I see those sewage drains that either flow into the sea with rivers or with storm water. That is, this is due to the fact that there are a lot of mini-hotels, a lot of houses that are rented out, and many simply have their own sewerage system - they simply throw it away,"- says ecologist Vitaly Bezrukov.
And this is a problem that is faced not only in Russia. For example, for the Bulgarians the Black Sea has long turned into a landfill. The bodies of baby dolphins are regularly found on the beaches of the Gold Coast, and no one even tries to disguise the pipes through which waste flows into the sea. In addition, temperatures here are breaking records.
The sea water temperature on the Varna coast is 24 degrees, and this does not have a very good effect on the marine ecosystem. Bacteria multiply very easily in water. In addition, large companies very often break the law by dumping waste into seas around the world, in particular into the Black Sea, near industrial cities.
Now reports of an epidemic of intestinal infection in the Black Sea resorts are coming from almost all countries that have access to it. And if the situation cannot be corrected in the near future, there is a risk of facing an environmental disaster on a regional scale.
ALL PHOTOS
The author of the appeal is Norilsk resident Larisa Yangol. According to her, “being with a small child in Adler for only two days and having swam in the sea, instead of resting, I got an intestinal infection and a trip to the infectious diseases hospital, which turned out to be overcrowded with vacationers.”
RIA Novosti / Mikhail Mokrushin
“I ask you to influence the local authorities and the general sanitary situation on the coast, which is out of control and threatens the health of the nation!” - writes Yangol. She addressed her appeal to the country's President Vladimir Putin and the country's chief sanitary doctor
Global Look Press
Russian tourists decided to draw the attention of the authorities to the sanitary situation on the Black Sea coast. They call it “catastrophic” and call on officials to stop the spread of intestinal infection in the Black Sea resorts, according to a petition posted on the website.
The author of the appeal is Norilsk resident Larisa Yangol. According to her, “being with a small child in Adler for only two days and having swam in the sea, instead of resting, we got an intestinal infection and a trip to the infectious diseases hospital, which turned out to be overcrowded with vacationers.” “Sick children even lie in the corridors, there are not enough places! Everyone has the same story - they swam in the Adler Black Sea, where sewage is dumped and infested with E. coli!... And this is in post-Olympic Sochi, where they did everything for the guests of the Olympics, but for their own children cannot create conditions for a safe rest!" - writes the tourist.
“I ask you to influence the local authorities and the general sanitary situation on the coast, which is out of control and threatens the health of the nation!” - writes Yangol. She addressed her appeal to the country's President Vladimir Putin and the country's chief sanitary doctor.
Within a month, more than 800 people signed the petition. “I am signing because my vacation on the Black Sea coast was hopelessly ruined, because all of the 6 people in our company had an intestinal infection, spent a lot of money on medicine and stayed in the room for most of the vacation! Urgent checks are needed from Moscow, because local authorities are keeping silent about the whole truth about the epidemiological situation,” writes Moscow resident Tatyana Chugunova in the comments.
Since mid-August, numerous vacationers have been publishing on social networks reports of cases of intestinal infection and rotavirus in Sochi and Anapa, as well as their reports of visits to overcrowded hospitals. The resource "BlogSochi" published a message from Angela Alekseenko, who complained that her child in Adler contracted an intestinal infection just by sitting on the beach.
“A night 60 children are admitted to the hospital with one diagnosis - “intestinal infection”, all the children are in the arms of their parents, they are constantly vomiting, they are exhausted and cannot stand on their feet,” the woman writes. “Poor doctors who do nothing they have time, the hospitals are overcrowded."
At the same time, the Ministry of Health of the Krasnodar Territory and Rospotrebnadzor deny massive outbreaks of infection. According to the Ministry of Resorts of the Krasnodar Territory, the congestion of Black Sea beaches in the high season of 2016 exceeded 100%. However, the regional department of Rospotrebnadzor reported that no cases of group and outbreak morbidity associated with water-based infection transmission (swimming in the sea, rivers, use of recreational areas) have been registered in the region, writes Kommersant. This information was confirmed to the publication by the Ministry of Health of the Krasnodar Territory.
The Sochi mayor's office suggests that parents and their children spend too long in the sun, including at hours when it becomes unsafe to be there. According to the deputy head of the tourism department of the Sochi administration, Elena Pavlovich, they do not rule out cases of poisoning, but emphasize that this is not widespread at the resort. And parents are advised to monitor their children more closely so that they are not in the sun all the time and do not drink sea water, the website Kuban.info reports.
Situation in Krasnodar region is rapidly approaching an environmental catastrophe. Russians vacationing there are stating this en masse. Tourists complain that the sea is polluted by sewage and algae, and talk about overcrowded hospitals, federal media write.
On social networks and blogs, tourists talk about intestinal infection epidemics in major resorts of the Black Sea: Anapa, Sochi, Gelendzhik and others. Hundreds of similar reports have been published about how tourists, after swimming in the sea, suffered from diarrhea and vomiting, waited for hours for an ambulance and spent most of their vacation in the hospital. Mostly parents of young children complained about their ruined vacation.
At the same time, local authorities do not recognize the problem: official comments say that there are no mass cases of disease. And on the Internet they began to collect signatures for a petition: Russians are asking President Vladimir Putin to save the Russian resort from an environmental disaster.
Official response Rospotrebnadzor according to September 3 as follows:
“Over the past 24 hours, 87 cases of infectious diseases were registered on the Azov-Black Sea coast, including those with a preliminary diagnosis: acute intestinal infections of unspecified etiology - 56, ARVI - 31 cases of the disease, the average daily recorded rates of infectious morbidity according to preliminary diagnoses do not exceed the daily average long-term levels".
More than 3.3 million tourists vacationed in Sochi from January to July 2016, according to an official statement on the municipality’s website. At the same time, the beaches were 100% busy.
We decided to find out about the situation on the Black Sea coast from our fellow countryman who was there for a month. Let us remind you that Pavel Gedz recently returned from . According to him, there can be no talk of any epidemic:
— The problem is that you don’t have to put everything in your mouth: from the shelves, from the stores. I myself saw how a family came to the beach with half a watermelon. They went for a swim in the sea, came out of the sea and again continued to eat watermelon, without visiting the shower. I wouldn’t be surprised that after some time this family ended up in a famous place. In this regard, I was more careful, always rinsed myself, and ate in exclusively designated places - cafes and canteens. The latter, by the way, are located right on the coast, and the prices there are normal. Lunch can be taken with first, second, compote and salad for around 200-300 rubles. Just like everyone else, being at sea, every now and then he caught water, now with his mouth, now with his nose. Sometimes I even swallowed it, but no virus took root in me, or it doesn’t exist at all.
Paul advised people to wash their hands often and watch what they eat.
“I have never bought food from hand, from traveling merchants. No churchkhella, no boiled corn, no anything! I do not advise tourists to immediately rush to local food. You come from another region. What is normal and familiar for locals may be sad for visitors; everyone’s body is different. Be healthy!
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We arrived in Adler on July 22 on a beautiful 2-story Moscow-Adler train, running only 24 hours. New carriages, clean toilets, air conditioning and polite conductors - it seemed as if we were living in another country. The last time I was in Adler was 20 years ago.
The hotel booked on Booking.com, consisting of several 2-story wooden cottages and a 3-story new building, looked very, very decent. The hosts met us right at the station, and we drove to the hotel on Prosveshcheniya Street with a breeze in a white Infinity. Having deceived a hotel booking site, we received a 10% discount from the kind hosts. Thus, a triple room cost us 3,000 rubles. per day.
The beach was 150 meters from our “hotel”. The path to it passed through dense rows of shops, shops, counters, canteens and cafes. Here they fried meat, boiled and sold corn, sold wine, water, clothing, beach slippers and mattresses. Life was seething here as if before the end of the world.
The beach, located between the Adlerkurort and the Znanie boarding house, was packed to capacity. There is no place to put your foot. The sun loungers near the water were suspiciously empty. It turned out that their price is 100 rubles. in a day. Under an umbrella and with a shabby mattress - 200 rubles. I had to take it to feel at least a little comfortable. It is noteworthy that on the beach, closer to the wall separating the beach and city streets (there is a railway above), shed houses were installed. To remove such a canopy costs 1000 rubles. per day and 1000 rub. per night. At night, life on the beach does not stop either.
Infection
On the first day we had dinner in the so-called canteen, of which there are a dime a dozen here. The prices are reasonable, the food seems decent. The next day we also had lunch in the dining room. In the evening we bought peaches, grapes and apricots at the fruit stand, which are sold here at every turn.
In the evening, we went with the children to a children's play at the summer cinema of the Fregat boarding house in Adlerkurort. The first child from our company, consisting of 4 adults and 3 children, began vomiting right during the performance. The vomiting was long and prolonged. Spectators moved to adjacent rows. When we get to the hotel, she will be vomiting all night, including bile.
That same evening, another child developed diarrhea. My grandmother's vomiting and diarrhea did not stop all night. I myself spent the next day drinking Regidron and eating Motilium in packs. The third, 5-year-old child lay prone all day. I ate practically nothing. He suffered the least: only 2 days of low fever, lethargy. Apparently, what saved me was that I was given Linex all day to prevent dysbacteriosis. The rest were kept in bed for 2-3 days. Then they started going out into the street. Thus, out of 7 people, only 1, which is noteworthy, the eldest of all - the grandfather, did not get sick.
When we sent grandfather to the pharmacy to buy medicine, the most popular remedies among those gathered at the cash register were remedies for diarrhea, vomiting and poisoning.
In the rooms and houses next to ours, the situation was similar: children and adults were all lying with similar symptoms. One 5-year-old girl had a very difficult intestinal infection (according to doctors, this is what affects vacationers): they called an ambulance and took her to the infectious diseases hospital twice to get an IV. Her mother cursed everything in the world and was only waiting for the moment of leaving home. She told me her impressions:
I think we got watermelon poisoning. The owners warned not to buy fruit on the street. In June-July, watermelons are all injected with antibiotics. The locals themselves do not swim in the sea. The taxi driver who took us to the hospital said that everyone was poisoned. There is a crowd of people in the infectious diseases hospital, everyone is waiting in the corridors, there are 8 people in wards, everyone is quickly put on their feet and discharged. My child has been in bed for 5 days, only an IV helped. I wouldn't be able to pick up anything else during the rest of the day.
We started looking for information on the Internet. On various forums and websites, reports that the water in the sea is full of intestinal infection and that there is simply an epidemic of the disease began to appear as early as 2012. It seems the situation has not changed since then. At the same time, we were unable to find any recent official information about the diseases in the city and on the seashore. The owner of the hotel confirmed that many people are sick, but not all. Usually they stay there for 1 day, but for us something has been delayed. The explanation is simple: the water in the sea is very warm from July to September, which is why infections occur there.
Another hotel neighbor, whom we met in the common kitchen, told his view of the situation:
I have two people who are sick: my wife and child. Have you seen the wastewater being dumped into the sea near our beach? When I realized where we were swimming, I was stunned! After this reset, the ambulances started visiting us.
After this conversation, the ambulance arrived at a nearby hotel. The driver told us that someone was feeling ill, so we came to answer the call. Most likely poisoning. Lots of challenges. He advised us to go straight to the infectious diseases hospital with our problems.
The doctors came out. They said it was an intestinal infection. To our question: “Why does everyone get sick?” - They didn’t answer anything.
Surprisingly, it turned out that there are people who were lucky and escaped this calamity. In Adlerkurort, a small area in the center of Adler, where large sanatoriums and boarding houses are located along the coast, the employee of the children's park happily reported that no one gets poisoned or sick. The beach is open to everyone. Last year they charged 100 rubles for entry from those who do not live in their boarding house, but this year they opened it for free. Vacationers from this boarding house were also surprised by my story about the widespread epidemic of intestinal infection. They say they have heard it many times, but have not seen it themselves.
On the semi-closed beach of the “Knowledge” boarding house located next door, there were significantly fewer people, about 20-30 times. There the sea was cleaner and all vacationers were told over the loudspeaker that they should not swallow sea water or eat smoked fish. During the remaining days of our vacation, we began to go swimming there.
What is happening with sea water in the Adler district of the resort city of Sochi and what are the causes of mass intestinal infections, I tried to find out from local officials and doctors.
The hospital and its “partisans”
All sick people who call an ambulance are taken to the infectious diseases department of the Regional Hospital No. 4 on Kirova Street, 50. According to information on the hospital’s website, it serves 110 thousand people of the local population, and in the summer season - up to 1 million (!) nonresident vacationers. The hospital has a capacity of 345 beds, has two pediatric infectious diseases departments with 50 and 60 beds, as well as an infectious diseases department for adults with 50 beds.
Infectious diseases department No. 2
It is noteworthy that the building of the children's clinic, located on the territory of the hospital, was built by Inteko CJSC in 2004-2005 on the initiative of Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov, as evidenced by the memorial plaque installed on the wall of the building.
First of all, I went to the children's infectious diseases department No. 2. Children's crying came from all the open windows of the 2- and 3-story buildings. It was interrupted only by the sounds of children vomiting. Two families with children were sitting at the reception area. We waited our turn. A woman who left the department said that their child had been suffering from pneumonia for two weeks now. No one is lying in the corridors, but she admitted that this is possible in August, when infections peak. The head of the department, having learned that I work in the media and write material on this topic, flatly refused to talk to me, sending me directly to the chief physician.
It was not difficult to get to the head of the institution. His office was located on the quiet 6th floor of the new hospital building in the cool air conditioning. 54-year-old Konstantin Oflidi was clearly not happy to see me. From the doorway he said that he wouldn’t talk to me because I was wearing shorts. That shorts are disrespectful to the government agency where I am, and to him personally. I apologized for the shorts and said that at 32 degrees I didn’t want to get heatstroke changing into trousers. Apparently, he was afraid to drive me away right away; he wanted to hear what I really wanted from him.
It turned out that dislike for men in shorts is just a prelude. Then there was an amazing dialogue between an employee of the federal magazine “Rest in Russia” (to whom I introduced myself) and the Honored Doctor of Russia, Honored Health Worker of Kuban, Deputy of the Sochi City Assembly Konstantin Oflidi. It reminded me of episodes of Soviet war films about the interrogation of captured Red partisans by the Nazis. Of course, I was in the role of a fascist.
How many patients are admitted to the children's infectious diseases department of your hospital per day (week, month)?
I won't answer this question!
I give all the information to Rospotrebnadzor and the Ministry of Health, ask them.
What diagnoses do patients come with? Do they treat intestinal infections?
With different ones. I won't elaborate. We take tests from everyone who comes to us. Upon discharge, we tell patients what was discovered. There may be a viral infection, as was most likely the case in your case (I told him my story). I won't say anything more.
In your opinion, what are the main causes of intestinal infection in Adler?
I won't answer.
What preventive measures are carried out in the city, is there any outreach work with vacationers?
I don't know. This is not our concern. We are treating those who are already sick.
Can you give any advice to vacationers and tourists on how to behave at a resort so as not to contract an infection?
I can only say to maintain personal hygiene. All the problems come from this. Don't eat with dirty hands or drink water in the sea. Tourists feel as if they are blown away when they come here.
Do you think that there is no problem with infectious diseases in Adler?
No. There are a lot of vacationers this year, but the situation is normal for this time of year.
That’s basically all I managed to extract from the “partisan”. I could only explain this behavior with one thing: the fear of losing my chair. After all, the chief doctor of a regional hospital is, perhaps, cooler than the head of a district. What if you say something wrong? And then there are the elections in September...
When I was sitting in the hospital corridor and writing in a notebook, the head doctor sent a security guard for me to take me outside. "Something happened?" - I ask the young guy. He explained that by order of the manager they were not allowed to wear shorts. I showed him a sign on the front door that showed a man in shorts and a woman in a dress. “Then you should draw on his trousers, otherwise it’s somehow not respectable,” I laughed.
Take pictures of the sewage!
From the hospital I went to the administration of the Adler district of Sochi. People on the street were waiting for the building to open after lunch. It turned out that they all came to inquire about financial assistance to those affected by the emergency (flood) on June 25, 2015. On the table at the entrance there were lists with the names of people who were entitled to payment. Several thousand names, the amounts are different for everyone: 10, 50 and 100 thousand rubles.
In the tourism department there were two pretty girls and a young man. They told me that from the beginning of the year to June 30, 950 thousand tourists had already come to their area. Only Rospotrebnadzor knows information about infections and the state of sea water. They don't have such information.
But people say that sewage is dumped directly into the sea, don’t you know either?
Well, if you see such a fact, then you need to photograph it and quickly bring it to us. We will sort it out. Just hurry up, otherwise we will arrive and there will be nothing there. We don’t have time to catch you by the hand.
That is, as I understand it, they already had such facts.
Next, I went to 17 Revolyutsii Street, Rospotrebnadzor, Adler District. Deputy Head of the Territorial Department of the Office of the Federal Service for Supervision of Consumer Rights Protection and Human Welfare in the Krasnodar Territory in the resort city of Sochi, Vladimir Efimchuk, was at his workplace and dared to talk to me. When I started asking questions, he stated that all communication with the press is only through the management, which is located in Sochi. The conversation didn't go well. I told him that hiding official information would lead to even more speculation and rumors regarding the real situation at the resort. What are they all hiding?
Having calmed down a little, Vladimir Nikolaevich still said that they had nothing to hide, that they took sea water samples every day. There are no infections or anything else in the water. She's clean. After the flood on June 25, when the water was 1-1.5 meters high, everything was washed into the sea, including farmsteads. 3 weeks after that there was an emergency. The results of water measurements were not standard, that is, pathogenic bacteria, including E. coli, exceeded permissible standards. That’s when the beaches were closed and you couldn’t swim. Now the sea has cleared, the tests are in order. Once again I spoke about personal hygiene, washing hands and fruits. I didn’t recommend buying anything on the street, since most trade from stalls is illegal.
We are waiting for you all year!
What can I say to sum up my visit to Adler this summer? The general fear of officials, high-ranking doctors, owners of hotels, cafes, restaurants and various sellers of low-quality goods and dubious services to answer questions and tell people the truth about the serious danger of contracting an intestinal infection in Adler can be explained by one thing: the height of the tourist season should not be overshadowed by such bad news. At the same time, none of them think that if vacationers were warned about how to behave in the most dangerous summer months, and this is the second half of July and August, what precautions to take, then the number of cases could be reduced significantly! In fact, everyone who comes on vacation from other regions, and especially with children, needs to be given a reminder, an instruction, informing them that there is an infection around that they have never encountered in their daily life before. And you need to be ready for it before you rush to the hospital or spend half your vacation in your room.
Otherwise, it turns out that the main task is to earn local entrepreneurs and city authorities money for the winter. And what will happen to the vacationers is not their concern, because the season will end soon, we must hurry! As one taxi driver told us, he took 1000 rubles. for travel from the Olympic Park to our hotel (16 km): “We’ve been waiting for you all year, that’s why we’re smiling!”
Our information:
What pathogens can cause acute intestinal infection?
There are several types of intestinal infections depending on the etiology:
1. Intestinal bacterial infection: (botulinum toxin poisoning) and others.
The mechanism of infection is nutritional (that is, through the mouth). The routes of infection are fecal-oral (food or water), household, and for some viral infections - airborne. Most pathogens of acute intestinal infection are highly resistant in the external environment and retain their pathogenic properties well in the cold (in the refrigerator, for example).
Transmission factors are food products (water, milk, eggs, cakes, meat, depending on the type of intestinal infection), household items (dishes, towels, dirty hands, toys, door handles), swimming in open water. The main role in the spread of infection is given to compliance or non-compliance with personal hygiene standards (washing hands after using the toilet, caring for the sick, before eating, disinfecting household items, allocating personal utensils and towels to the sick person, reducing contact to a minimum).
Susceptibility to intestinal infections is universal, regardless of age and gender. The most susceptible to intestinal pathogens are children and the elderly, people with diseases of the stomach and intestines.
Prevention of acute intestinal infection:
1) compliance with personal hygiene rules;
2) drinking boiled or bottled water;
3) washing vegetables and fruits before consumption with running water, and for small children - boiled water;
4) thorough heat treatment of the necessary food before consumption;
5) short-term storage of perishable foods in the refrigerator;
6) do not accumulate garbage;
7) monitor the cleanliness of the home and the sanitary maintenance of the toilet room and bathroom.
