Cancer Epidemic in Chechnya
War-torn republic struggles to cope with a sharp rise in cancer sufferers.
Cancer Epidemic in Chechnya
War-torn republic struggles to cope with a sharp rise in cancer sufferers.
When the deputy headmistress of a school in the small village of Davydenko died, the flow of people coming to offer their condolences, most of them former pupils, continued unabated for several days.
Zamira (not her real name) died of breast cancer. She had undergone three courses of chemotherapy in Rostov’s Oncology Research Institute. As a result, her abundant knee-length hair began to fall out, causing her much distress. Each chemotherapy course cost her around 20,000 rubles (800 US dollars), not counting the cost of travel, accommodation and medicines. Zamira sold her family’s livestock to pay for her treatment and others relatives and colleagues also helped.
“She had an advanced third-stage tumour,” said Zamira’s sister Madina, who also has cancer, stroking a scar from a recent operation on her neck. “She had her left breast removed. She felt better after her last trip to Rostov for radiation treatment. As the school’s deputy headmistress, she went to work on September 1 to organise the celebration of the beginning of the new school year.
“As days went by, it became more and more difficult for her to breathe, and she began to have choking attacks. It turned out that several litres of water had built up in her lungs. When they had pumped it out, the doctors said there was nothing more they could do for her.”
“She was fifty-three [when she died] and she’d spent 33 years, working as a teacher,” Madina went on. “It’s very hard now for her two sons and husband. She adored her granddaughter and took her photo with her whenever she went to Rostov and talked to it when she was lying in her ward.”
Her relatives say that Zamira hid her disease and did not go to the doctors early. “Maybe, she didn’t believe she had the disease or maybe it was because she had no money,” said her sister.
Chechnya is in the grip of what could be described as an epidemic of cancer. Zamira is not the only member of her family to have suffered from the disease. Madina said their brother and father had also fallen victim, along with around
50 relatives and acquaintances.
According to the republic’s one working cancer clinic, as many cases were recorded in the first five months of this year as in the whole of 2006. “Today we have 1712 patients, how can you explain that?” said Petimat Khamidova, the head of the clinic.
Khamidova, who has worked in this field for 30 years, said there had never been so many cancer patients before war broke out in Chechnya. “Most frequent are cases of lung cancer, breast cancer, cancer of thyroid gland, skin cancer, gynaecological disorders,” she said. “We used to have very few cases of lung cancer here.”
According to data on lung cancer from the whole of the North Caucasus for 2004, the incidence in Chechnya is more than five times higher that of other republics.
Chechnya’s deputy health minister Rukman Bartiev declined to give exact numbers of sufferers, telling IWPR, “We are monitoring the number of patients, but we can’t give a precise number for them now. The figures are constantly changing because of large-scale migration inside the republic.”
There is no proper hospital care for cancer available in Chechnya and the only condition the local health system can treat effectively is skin cancer. Hundreds of sufferers receive treatment such as chemotherapy outside the republic.
The Rostov Oncology Research Institute reports that up to 1,500 residents of Chechnya apply to it for treatment every six months, and one in six of these is admitted to hospital. Over half of all the patients receiving treatment in the institute are now from Chechnya.
There is also a shortage of specialists in Chechnya itself and the deputy health minister said that it is difficult to bring in outsiders. “We would have to provide accommodation for them, but how can we possibly do that, when our locals are themselves cooped up in temporary accommodation centres?” said Bartiev. “That is why we are preparing our own staff.”
Chechnya’s health ministry is trying to improve its methods of catching the disease early. “People should have ultra-sound scans at least once a year,” said Khamidova. “They come with already advanced cancer conditions, third- or fourth-stage tumours and early-stage cancer patients are rare.”
Rashid Idrisov, an official with Chechnya’s health ministry, said that federal aid for healthcare was increasing next year from 100 million roubles (four million dollars) to 273 million roubles (11 million dollars).
There appear to be multiple causes for the increase in cancer in Chechnya, with particular concern about the environmental effects of war and of the local oil industry.
A sick woman summed them up, “Military action, stress, the agony of waiting for ‘mop-up operations’ or for the arrival of federal troops or other people for God knows what reasons - we’ve been through all this and we’ve suffered depression.
“We can rebuild our factories and plant new trees. But it’s impossible to restore our health with the methods being used today and the money being allocated for the environmental improvement of the republic. It is far too little.”
IWPR’s conversation with Petimat Khamidova was interrupted by the arrival of a girl, who had a black scarf tied around her head that signifed the death of a very close relative. “He died... Dad died three days ago,” she said weeping.
“You see, this is what happens two or three times every week,” said Khamidova, her eyes filling with tears, as she hugged the girl. The girl had come to give her medicines that had been bought for her father. “They may be of use to someone,” she said and went away.
Asia Umarova is a freelance journalist in Chechnya.
Zamira (not her real name) died of breast cancer. She had undergone three courses of chemotherapy in Rostov’s Oncology Research Institute. As a result, her abundant knee-length hair began to fall out, causing her much distress. Each chemotherapy course cost her around 20,000 rubles (800 US dollars), not counting the cost of travel, accommodation and medicines. Zamira sold her family’s livestock to pay for her treatment and others relatives and colleagues also helped.
“She had an advanced third-stage tumour,” said Zamira’s sister Madina, who also has cancer, stroking a scar from a recent operation on her neck. “She had her left breast removed. She felt better after her last trip to Rostov for radiation treatment. As the school’s deputy headmistress, she went to work on September 1 to organise the celebration of the beginning of the new school year.
“As days went by, it became more and more difficult for her to breathe, and she began to have choking attacks. It turned out that several litres of water had built up in her lungs. When they had pumped it out, the doctors said there was nothing more they could do for her.”
“She was fifty-three [when she died] and she’d spent 33 years, working as a teacher,” Madina went on. “It’s very hard now for her two sons and husband. She adored her granddaughter and took her photo with her whenever she went to Rostov and talked to it when she was lying in her ward.”
Her relatives say that Zamira hid her disease and did not go to the doctors early. “Maybe, she didn’t believe she had the disease or maybe it was because she had no money,” said her sister.
Chechnya is in the grip of what could be described as an epidemic of cancer. Zamira is not the only member of her family to have suffered from the disease. Madina said their brother and father had also fallen victim, along with around
50 relatives and acquaintances.
According to the republic’s one working cancer clinic, as many cases were recorded in the first five months of this year as in the whole of 2006. “Today we have 1712 patients, how can you explain that?” said Petimat Khamidova, the head of the clinic.
Khamidova, who has worked in this field for 30 years, said there had never been so many cancer patients before war broke out in Chechnya. “Most frequent are cases of lung cancer, breast cancer, cancer of thyroid gland, skin cancer, gynaecological disorders,” she said. “We used to have very few cases of lung cancer here.”
According to data on lung cancer from the whole of the North Caucasus for 2004, the incidence in Chechnya is more than five times higher that of other republics.
Chechnya’s deputy health minister Rukman Bartiev declined to give exact numbers of sufferers, telling IWPR, “We are monitoring the number of patients, but we can’t give a precise number for them now. The figures are constantly changing because of large-scale migration inside the republic.”
There is no proper hospital care for cancer available in Chechnya and the only condition the local health system can treat effectively is skin cancer. Hundreds of sufferers receive treatment such as chemotherapy outside the republic.
The Rostov Oncology Research Institute reports that up to 1,500 residents of Chechnya apply to it for treatment every six months, and one in six of these is admitted to hospital. Over half of all the patients receiving treatment in the institute are now from Chechnya.
There is also a shortage of specialists in Chechnya itself and the deputy health minister said that it is difficult to bring in outsiders. “We would have to provide accommodation for them, but how can we possibly do that, when our locals are themselves cooped up in temporary accommodation centres?” said Bartiev. “That is why we are preparing our own staff.”
Chechnya’s health ministry is trying to improve its methods of catching the disease early. “People should have ultra-sound scans at least once a year,” said Khamidova. “They come with already advanced cancer conditions, third- or fourth-stage tumours and early-stage cancer patients are rare.”
Rashid Idrisov, an official with Chechnya’s health ministry, said that federal aid for healthcare was increasing next year from 100 million roubles (four million dollars) to 273 million roubles (11 million dollars).
There appear to be multiple causes for the increase in cancer in Chechnya, with particular concern about the environmental effects of war and of the local oil industry.
A sick woman summed them up, “Military action, stress, the agony of waiting for ‘mop-up operations’ or for the arrival of federal troops or other people for God knows what reasons - we’ve been through all this and we’ve suffered depression.
“We can rebuild our factories and plant new trees. But it’s impossible to restore our health with the methods being used today and the money being allocated for the environmental improvement of the republic. It is far too little.”
IWPR’s conversation with Petimat Khamidova was interrupted by the arrival of a girl, who had a black scarf tied around her head that signifed the death of a very close relative. “He died... Dad died three days ago,” she said weeping.
“You see, this is what happens two or three times every week,” said Khamidova, her eyes filling with tears, as she hugged the girl. The girl had come to give her medicines that had been bought for her father. “They may be of use to someone,” she said and went away.
Asia Umarova is a freelance journalist in Chechnya.
