MOSCOW, September 12 (Itar-Tass) — Chief sanitary officer Gennady Onishchenko said the children taken off the Novorossiisk-Murmansk train in a suspected dysentery outbreak, are in satisfactory condition.
"The children are in satisfactory condition; they are receiving adequate treatment; the condition of their health causes no concerns," Onishchenko said, "according to preliminary information, the affliction was caused by inferior quality food served at the recreation center in the afternoon."
"The children ate pancakes and chops. It was the last day of their stay in the children's recreation center in Anapa. They were to have arrived in Karelia by train.
"The children, when asked about the food, said its quality was poor," Onishchenko said.
As of today, the tests ran on the children hospitalized in Murmansk showed the presence of dysentery.
"We're expecting the Tver data by the afternoon. We've passed the data to prosecutors," the chief sanitary inspector added.
The food poisoning incident occurred on September 8. The train had two cars with children numbering 100 together with the adults accompanying them.
Nine children were hospitalized in Michurinsk, 11 children and one adult in Ryazan, six children and one adult in Moscow and ten children in Tver.
By the time the train had arrived in Petrozavodsk, Karelia, 61 children remained on the train. Of those, six were promptly rushed to hospital.
On Monday, Onishchenko said there had been no significant increase in the rate of flu and acute respiratory infection in the country.
The situation in general - despite the seasonal upsurge due to the formation of children's collectives - is not extreme. It has been under control so far," he underlined.
The annual inoculation campaign has already begun.
This season, it is planned to vaccinate 32.1 million people (20.1 million adults and 12 million children), Onishchenko said.
Vaccination is already underway in the Ivanov, Orenburg, and Saratov regions and Tatarstan.
"This year, it began earlier compared with last year," he noted.
Vaccines for adults have already been supplied to all Russian regions, and supplies of children's vaccines are underway. The domestic vaccine Grippol is used both for children and adults.