LIPETSK, June 29 (Itar-Tass) - An outbreak of an enteroviral infection in Russia’s Lipetsk region is declining, the head of the regional department of the Russian Rospotrebnadzor consumer rights watchdog, Stanislav Savelyev, told Tass on Saturday. According to him, five people were hospitalized over the past 24 hours, which is four times less than during the previous 24 hours.
No serous meningitis cases as a complication from the infection have been revealed in the past 24 hours, he said. “We can say that the situation is gradually stabilizing,” he added. A set of measures taken in the region and in the city of Yelets, the hotbed of the infection, has contributed to that. Particular attention was paid to sanitation of cities and districts, liquidation of spontaneous waste deposits. Special barriers were put at water reservoirs where bathing is not allowed.
A quick reaction of medics has made it possible “to cope with the infection rather quickly, and no grave cases have been registered,” Savelyev said. Children hit by the infection feel rather well several days after being hospitalized.
All in all 246 people have fallen ill in the Lipetsk region, mainly children. A total of 83 people had serous meningitis as a complication from the infection. Specialists from other Russian regions arrived in the region to help local medics.
Since early June, outbreaks of enetroviral infections that might cause meningitis have been registered in various regions of Russia. The disease is especially dangerous for children. The bulk of meningitis cases were reported from Russia’s southern city of Rostov-on-Don. Later, reports about meningitis cases in children came from Astrakhan, the Lipetsk region, Voronezh, Volgograd, Nizhny Novgorod, Kursk, and Moscow.