The Russian military is suffering an epidemic of tuberculosis among soldiers who have served in the war in Ukraine, local media have reported.
The Moscow Times cited one former military patient as saying the Moscow hospital he was in had around 1,000 tuberculosis patients.
The paper said a likely reason for the outbreak is the recruitment of prisoners to serve at the front.
"Tuberculosis is widespread in prison, every third person is sick,” the paper quoted a military patient who had previously worked as a prison officer as saying.
“And when they went to war en masse... The doctors at the hospital said that before that it was almost empty, a maximum of 10 people on a floor, and now there are queues for hospitalization, there are not enough beds."
Tuberculosis is a contagious disease of the lungs that spreads through the air and kills around 2 million people annually, mainly in third world countries.
Even prior to the current surge in cases, Russia was a hotspot for TB.
The World Health Organization (WHO) reported that in 2023, the country recorded around 55,000 cases, the highest rate in Europe.
The WHO describes tuberculosis as a significant health problem in Russia with a rising incidence of drug-resistant strains of the disease, the second-highest rate worldwide in 2023 after India.
According to the World Bank, the tuberculosis death rate in Russia was 3.6 per 100,000 of population in 2023, down significantly from 15.4 per 100,000 in 2017.
The paper said a likely reason for the outbreak is the recruitment of prisoners to serve at the front.
"Tuberculosis is widespread in prison, every third person is sick,” the paper quoted a military patient who had previously worked as a prison officer as saying.
“And when they went to war en masse... The doctors at the hospital said that before that it was almost empty, a maximum of 10 people on a floor, and now there are queues for hospitalization, there are not enough beds."
Tuberculosis is a contagious disease of the lungs that spreads through the air and kills around 2 million people annually, mainly in third world countries.
Even prior to the current surge in cases, Russia was a hotspot for TB.
The World Health Organization (WHO) reported that in 2023, the country recorded around 55,000 cases, the highest rate in Europe.
The WHO describes tuberculosis as a significant health problem in Russia with a rising incidence of drug-resistant strains of the disease, the second-highest rate worldwide in 2023 after India.
According to the World Bank, the tuberculosis death rate in Russia was 3.6 per 100,000 of population in 2023, down significantly from 15.4 per 100,000 in 2017.
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