After Chernobyl: Mother and Child Health

The ecological and socioeconomic situation that arouse after the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant catastrophe exerts negative influence on the health of people living in the contaminated areas, women and children being the most vulnerable population group. With the intent to improve the quality of their life, since 2002, the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) has been implementing the Mother and Child Health Project in several districts of the Mogilev and Gomel regions.

The project aims to enhance disease-prevention and health care services to women and children living in the contaminated districts, and covers a large territory, in particular:

• Bragin, Khoiniky and Narovlya districts of the Gomel region; the city of  Gomel (2002-2006);
• Slavgorod, Cherikov and Krasnopolye districts of the Mogilev region; the city of Mogilev (2007-2008);
•  Bykhov, Chausy and Krichev districts of the Mogilev region; the city of Mogilev (2009-2010).

Over the period of 2002 through 2008, the SDC has allocated over three million U.S. dollars to finance the project. The funds were used to equip hospitals, outpatient units, and rural medical points with state-of-the-art medical facilities, conduct training seminars for obstetrician-gynaecologists, neonatologists, paediatricians, and general practitioners, and also to elaborate and introduce a series of measures aimed to enhance efficiency of educative activities in the Chernobyl-hit districts.

Special emphasis is being put on advocacy of the healthy lifestyle patterns and safe radiation behaviour of the population: special group courses are offered to expectant and nursing mothers on the basis of the local outpatient units and medical points; rural schools conduct healthy lifestyle trainings for children using the peer-to-peer technique. The all-out disease-prevention efforts have yielded fruits: the number of unwanted pregnancies in the project districts has gone down by 23.3%; the number of mothers, who practice breast feeding, has increased by 11%.

The project partners, namely administrations of the hospitals, health authorities of the districts, Gomel and Mogilev regions, have made substantial contribution to the project. In particular, the hospitals of the Slavgorod, Cherikov, and Krasnopolye districts completed major overhauls in the departments, which provide medical aid to expectant mothers and children.

Owing to the Mother and Child Health Project implemented in the Gomel and Mogilev regions, obstetrician-gynaecologists and paediatricians have raised their professional level in the field of advanced perinatal technologies; present-day methods are applied for medical examination and treatment of residents of the most heavily contaminated districts; health of women and children is being strengthened.

The district administrations report long-term beneficial effects of the project, such as lower general and child mortality rates, and positive trends in the scope of the incidence of infantile diseases in the territories covered by the project.

The protocol on prophylaxis, diagnostics and treatment of foetus and newborn infants, carriers of Group B Streptococcus infections, elaborated by Swiss, French and Belarusian experts was a crucial component of the project in 2007-2008. It was outlined following the general increase in congenital infections rate among newborn infants, and the high risks of B Streptococcus impact. The Ministry of Health of Belarus has approved the protocol, which will be introduced as a pilot project in medical and preventive treatment institutions of the Mogilev region in 2009-2010. If the tests are satisfactory, the protocol will be launched at the national level.

Besides, the years 2009 and 2010 will see a series of actions aimed to improve the primary health care practices in rural areas of the Bykhov, Chausy, and Krichev districts. District hospitals will be provided with state-of-art medical equipment, and their personnel will be given an opportunity for professional development.

Program Officer: Dmitry Mikhniuk

dmitry.mikhniuk@sdc.net

Source: http://www.sdc.by/en/Home/Humanitarian_Aid_Programme