Marsel Minnulin: ‘Infectious disease doctors are the staff we cannot exist without’
“Infectious disease doctors are always on the frontline”
Infectious Diseases in the 21st century Russian scientific conference with international participants took place in Kazan on 26 April.
The conference gathered doctors specialising in infectious diseases and epidemics from all hospitals and polyclinics of Tatarstan as well as specialists from Moscow, Saint Petersburg, the Chechen Republic, Belarus, Kazakhstan and other regions and countries. Topical infections and the conservation of biosecurity in modern time were discussed during scientific sessions and symposiums.
Tatarstan Minister of Health Care Marsel Minnulin delivered a welcome speech at the plenary session. First of all, he noted the contribution of medical universities to the staff training for the health care system: “Training of infectious disease doctors in the Republic of Tatarstan started with the opening of specialised departments. Thousands of students and doctors have done training in the departments in the last 100 years. Precisely infectious disease doctors are the staff we cannot exist without.”
“The task is to not only to prepare for epidemics but also be ready for them”
Director of the Children Scientific Centre for Infectious Diseases of the Federal Medical and Biological Agency, chief infectious disease doctor of Saint Petersburg Konstantin Zhdanov explained what challenges the world is facing nowadays from a perspective of infectious diseases.
“We survived COVID-19 but it is still here. There are always challenges: acute viral respiratory diseases that appear every year, there are other challenges in respiratory infections, intestine infections and others. The task of the service for infectious diseases is to not only to prepare for epidemics but also be ready for them. These are two different things,” Konstantin Zhdanov stressed.
According to him, infectious disease doctors have what to prepare for. The experience gained during the coronavirus pandemic is simply unique but it is not enough: “The situation changes every time: different viruses, different diseases, different states of patients, the environment, micro and macroorganisms that have an impact.”
The medical community have a big job to do in prevention, noted the chief infectious disease doctor of Saint Petersburg:
“We have a problem with prevention through vaccination in the country, not only here but also across the globe. The anti-vax campaign, unfortunately, is gaining such a high pace that it is becoming harder to handle year after year. The measles and whooping cough incidence is growing for this reasons. Children’s diseases, which are managed with vaccination, are spreading. This is terrible!”
Assessing the achievements of Tatarstan infectious disease doctors, Konstantin Zhdanov noted that Kazan and the Republic of Tatarstan in general as a region mean a lot for the country.
“Several specialised scientific departments were founded here a hundred years ago for a reason. The merits of our colleagues dealing with infectious diseases from Kazan are well-known across the country. We have what to discuss today. We have many scientific projects, research in the future, including on novel infections and their prevention,” the speaker concluded.