In Irkutsk, amid an epidemiological surge of ARVI and flu, hospitals imposed quarantine, stepped up disinfection, and required medical staff to wear masks. Visits and scheduled appointments are limited, and doctors are asked to make house calls to curb the spread of infection. Specialists hope illness rates will start falling in a week, when school holidays begin.

In Irkutsk, efforts are being made to stop its spread on all fronts. For this purpose, quarantine has been introduced in hospitals. Doctors have been required to wear protective masks. But medical workers place their main hopes on school holidays — it is they that should help reduce the number of cases.
All systems are go. This is what the situation in the city’s medical institutions can be called. In clinics and hospitals, the disinfection regime has been intensified — rooms are ventilated, treated with special solutions, and daily ultraviolet irradiation is carried out. And all medical staff have put on masks. They are not very convenient, but they have to be worn both during appointments in offices and on house calls to patients.
Nikolai Nikitenko, doctor, municipal polyclinic No. 9, Irkutsk: «There is no complete guarantee. It cannot be said that it is 100% protection. Nevertheless, there is some percentage of prevention of the spread of influenza».
The chief sanitary doctor of the region ordered the introduction of a preventive regime in medical institutions. The region has seen an epidemiological rise in the incidence of acute respiratory viral infections and influenza. To date, more than 5,000 people in Irkutsk have already sought medical help. 192 patients have been hospitalized, 148 of them children. In this regard, quarantine has been introduced in all city hospitals. Visits to patients are prohibited and scheduled admissions are limited. According to specialists from the Rospotrebnadzor administration, these measures can limit the spread of the infection.
Lyubov Nursayanova, deputy head of the Rospotrebnadzor administration for the Irkutsk Region: «As of today, influenza A virus is circulating, and types of influenza B virus are also circulating. In addition, other respiratory infection viruses are being detected — parainfluenza. We recommend that patients not visit clinics themselves, but call doctors to their homes».
If the number of patients increases, additional beds will be deployed at the Ivano-Matreninskaya Children’s Hospital. Also, during the implementation of a set of preventive measures, the city’s clinics have been advised to increase their staffing reserve. At polyclinic No. 9, this issue was resolved by using residents from the medical university. Measures to prevent infection are also provided for kindergartens and schools. In these institutions, during the period of rising incidence, a continuous record must be kept of all children who fall ill with influenza and acute respiratory viral infections. According to current information, no group outbreaks have been registered in children’s groups.
In Irkutsk, restrictions have also been imposed on holding mass events during the epidemic rise in incidence. In hospitals, quarantine will remain in effect until a special order from Rospotrebnadzor. As specialists predict, in a week, when school holidays begin, the incidence of acute respiratory viral infections and influenza should start to decline.