[Trichinosis in the Republic of North Ossetia-Alania].

The present paper presents the biological, epidemiological, clinical, and immunological characteristics of trichinosis in the Republic of North Ossetia-Alania, which is based on the results of long-term studies and follow-ups and on the 1971-2002 report data from medical and veterinary services and hunt inspectorate agencies. It has established that a total of 675 clinical cases of trichinosis were recorded in Ossetia-Alania in the period under study. The incidence rate of the disease ranged from 0.5 to 16.9 cases per 100,000 individuals, which was 5-20 times or more than the average federal rate. The source of infection of human trichinosis was meat from pigs in 70.7% of the cases and that from wild animals (boars and bears) in 21.3%. Immunological examinations (red cell-linked-antigen test and enzyme immunoassay) of patients with trichinosis who had ingested infected meat, but had not fallen ill with its manifestative form revealed 81.8 and 44.2% seropositive subjects, respectively. In different periods, a positive response ranged from 3.6 to 4.7% in healthy urban residents and from 6.4 to 11.8% in rural ones. The extensiveness of invasion was 0.06 to 1.4% in pigs from individual farms and 0.0033 to 0.034% in those from collective farms. In the Digorsk Region, the trichinosis infection rates were 13.4% in dogs, 4.8% in cats, and 1.3% in murine rodents. The extensiveness of invasion in wild boars was 6.35%. A population of one capsule-forming type of Trichinella spiralis was shown to circulate in the animals of natural and synanthropic biocenoses and it is just this population that determines the specific features of an epizootic process in this area. The natural and social factors that contribute to the formation and maintenance of the activity of endemic foci of trichinosis in the Ossetia-Alania under the present socioeconomic conditions are analyzed.

[Impact of effect of natural disasters on the circulation of causative agents of parasitic diseases].

The southern region is marked by a high incidence of parasitic diseases and a significant contamination of environmental objects with the eggs and cysts of their pathogens. Background examinations revealed the greatest soil contamination with helminthic eggs in the Temryuksky District of the Krasnodar Territory and in the towns of Vladikavkaz and Digora of the Republic of North Ossetia (Alania). The least contamination was found in Rostov-on-Don and the towns of the south-western area of the Krasnodar Territory. The eggs of Toxocara and astamination. There is an increase in the proportion of soil positive tests from 26.6 to 50.0, with the high (up to 82.0-100.0%) viability of eggs and a rise in the intensive index of their content per kg of soil (from 2.7 to 4.7-11.0). Toxocara eggs were mainly detected. The established high proportion of seropositive persons (10.7-18.0%) among the local population is an additional verification of the wide circulation of Toxocara eggs in nature. By the helminthic egg contamination index, the soils of localities of the south of Russia are qualified as those of moderate epidemic hazard. The floods accompanied by the increased helminthological contamination of the upper soil layer may lead to a higher human risk for contamination with helminthic diseases.

[Organization and execution of surveillance of the sanitary and epidemiologic situation under conditions of the emergency situation of a natural character]. / Organizatsiia i provedenie nadzora za sanitarno-épidemiologicheskoi obstanovkoi v usloviiakh chrezvychainykh situatsii prirodnogo kharaktera.

The data on the work of the formations and institutions of the sanitary and epidemiological service of the Republic of North Ossetia-Alania under the conditions of the emergency situation of the natural character (high floods) in June 2002 and the liquidation of its consequences are presented. Experience in ensuring the interaction between the formations of the sanitary and epidemiological service on the problems connected with the realization of the epidemiological surveillance in the territories affected by the natural calamity is described.

[Prevention of epidemiological consequences during an extreme situation caused by the natural disaster in the Republic of North Ossetia-Alania]. / Preduprezhdenie épidemiologicheskikh posledstvii vo vremia ékstremal'noi obstanovki, vyzvannoi stikhiinym bedstviem v Respublike Severnaia Osetiia-Alaniia.

Information on the organization of interaction between different services responsible for restoration works, sanitary cleaning, disinfection under the conditions of the emergency situation is presented. The activity of the sanitary and epidemiological services in the areas in the Republic of North Ossetia-Alania, affected by high flood, is described. Measures aimed at the epidemiological surveillance of acute enteric infections, the control of the quality of drinking water and foodstuffs, the bacteriological study of material samples taken from humans, vaccinal and phage prophylaxis have taken an important place in the work of the institutions of sanitary and epidemiological surveillance. As the result of all these measures the sanitary and epidemiological service has managed to prevent the aggravation of the sanitary and epidemiological situation in the republic.

[Prevention of acute enteric infections and viral hepatitis A appearing in connection with a natural disaster in the Republic of North Ossetia-Alana]. / Profilaktika ostrykh kishechnykh infektsii i virusnogo gepatitia A v sviazi s prirodnym stikhiinym bedstviem v Respublike Severnaia Osetiia-Alaniia.

Materials on the work of the sanitary and epidemiological service in the Republic of North Ossetia-Alania, aimed at the prophylaxis of acute enteric infections and viral hepatitis A under the conditions of the emergency situation caused natural calamities (inundation, high flood), are presented. The competent planning and operative realization of organizational, prophylactic and anti-epidemic measures have made it possible to keep morbidity in acute enteric infections and viral hepatitis A on a sporadic level.