Meeting with Rospotrebnadzor Head Anna Popova

The Head of the federal service briefed
the President on measures to ensure nationwide epidemiological safety, the work
of Rospotrebnadzor’s unified information and analysis system and the expansion of the pathogen
monitoring network.
At the beginning of the conversation, Vladimir Putin congratulated Anna Popova and the service’s staff
on their professional holiday, Day of Sanitary Epidemiological Oversight, marked
in Russia on September 15.
* * *
President of Russia Vladimir Putin: Good afternoon.
Today is your professional holiday,
and I would like to extend my greetings.
In the past few years, you and your
staff, as well as the entire country, have experienced serious ordeals. You have
risen to the occasion, and I hope that you will maintain these high standards
in the future.
How is the work proceeding?
Head of Rospotrebnadzor Anna
Popova Popova AnnaHead of the Federal Service for the Oversight of Consumer Protection and Welfare (Rospotrebnadzor) :
Thank you very much, Mr President.
Of course, thank you, first and foremost for your greetings, your high assessment and for continuously attention
to the service’s work. We find this to be extremely important. Thank for always
hearing us and listening to us and thank you once again for your support.
Two years ago, you told our entire
staff in the Grand Kremlin Palace’s St Alexander Hall that the creation of our
country’s sanitary shield was a high-priority issue and that our main task was
to protect the people from various current threats, including biological and hygienic threats, as well as any threats that may arise in the future.
If I may, I would like to briefly report
on what we have managed to accomplish during this period under the extensive programme
and task that you set for us, which we are fulfilling as per your instruction.
Last year, we evaluated our
nationwide achievements and performance in implementing our tasks. It turned
out that the economic losses prevented thanks to reducing the incidence of infectious diseases through measures that are being implemented totalled 865.9
billion rubles. Additionally, prevented losses, linked with environmental
factors, when we were able to prevent non-infectious diseases, totalled 213.3
billion rubles.
What is also important is that
people trust our sanitary and epidemiological measures 15 percent more than
before. I believe that this, too, is a result that we will continue to build
upon.
A unified information and analysis system has
been created, allowing us to receive real-time data on every case of infectious
disease reported by medical professionals across the Russian Federation. This
information is transmitted to the central office within seconds, enabling swift
analysis.
These are a few numbers on the amount of data,
knowledge we get today. To ensure accuracy, we have loaded data from the past
30 years into this database so that we can compare current trends and gain an understanding of the evolving patterns.
This small diagram provides a clear
illustration of current trends. It shows that in the case of intestinal
infections, viruses are replacing bacteria. We are observing a decline in diseases caused by bacteria such as salmonella and dysentery pathogens, while
viral infections are on the rise. This shift indicates that we need to adjust
our approach, focusing more on diagnostics, PCR testing, and virus detection
methods.
Moreover, there are numerous results we can use
to better protect our population.
Vladimir Putin: Why is this happening?
Anna Popova: Viruses replicate more quickly than bacteria.
Vladimir Putin: They behaved like this in the past. What has
changed now?
Anna Popova: Mr President, our behaviour has changed
significantly. We are much more connected now than we were 100 years ago. Over
the past 150 years, our lives have transformed dramatically. We have more
social interactions, dine out more frequently, and are more dependent on how
well certain health guidelines are followed.
The food preparation system has also
transformed significantly. Whereas in the past there were small-scale
operations or just a single cow at home, today we have large enterprises producing
vast quantities of products at once.
In this context, our measures and oversight are
crucial because any lapse can pose a risk to a large number of people. Viruses
take advantage of these vulnerabilities and can penetrate the body rapidly.
Additionally, they are smaller in size which makes them more challenging to control with conventional disinfection methods. As the world changes due to human activities, viruses also adapt to these new conditions.
I will not elaborate on all the numbers; you
can see them.
We have established a three-tier pathogen
monitoring network. First, PCR, a method that we now know very well. In the past, there were PCR laboratories, but now we have PCR centres that accumulate
information and transmit data.
There are sequencing centres. You can see the increase we have achieved: there were 14 in 2019, but this number increased as a result of the pandemic. Thank you very much for supporting our proposals, as we now have as many as 54 sequencing centres.
Of course, we also have high-security
laboratories. There used to be five, and today there are 20. These facilities
allow us to work with the most dangerous pathogens and viruses in order to detect
them.
Mobile labs have made a significant
contribution by being able to reach any location in the country. We have also increased
our capacities: there were five labs, and now there are 71. We can promptly
reach any location in Russia that has roads to help patients with infections
and investigate what has happened. Here you can see the network of mobile labs
that we have. All of them use Russian-made all-terrain
vehicles made according to our special rules and standards and can fit inside the Emergencies Ministry’s planes.
Mr President, if I may, I would like to present
a project we are currently working on. Considering the demand for roads, together
with Rostec and Russian Helicopters, we are developing the same well-protected
and highly productive laboratory with removable modules based on our Kamov Ka
helicopter. We very much hope to present a working model within the next three
years. This will ensure safety in different parts of our country and abroad.
Our technologies for combating infectious diseases
are in great demand in various countries.
At your instruction, we started collecting
information about all the sequences in the country related to infectious
pathogens. This system is now operational, and it covers not just COVID-19, but
more than 40 pathogens, including flu, various respiratory viruses, hepatitis,
and HIV.
In this way, we provide full control over
viruses and can see immediately whether they are changing or not, whether there
is some difference, or whether there is a mutation or not. Several different
departments are actively cooperating with this system. Thus, we can see much
more and react much faster.
Your another instruction was regarding the population and immunological surveillance. We came to understand the extent of immunity the population had to measles or purple fever, not only COVID (though
we did begin with COVID during the pandemic).
As for the Kherson Region, we do not know how people
were inoculated there, as the documents are not available everywhere. However,
it is evident that the situation was mishandled and the quality of immunisation
is very, very low. While immunity to mumps is 97–98 percent across the country,
in this region it is only 65.7 percent. We must make significant efforts to avoid
complications, and this is what we are doing. The same applies to diphtheria,
which has an immunity rate of 83 percent, as well as poliomyelitis. Fortunately,
this is no longer an acute problem, because we are working together with the healthcare system to resolve any problems.
As for other infections, it appears that West
Nile fever is quite widespread in the region. Although they do not seek medical
advice, about 11 percent of the population has immunity, indicating that people
have encountered or contracted the disease. However, we do not know how they
were diagnosed.
The same is true for Crimean-Congo haemorrhagic
fever. This is a serious disease; 12.5 percent of the population has been
affected, but there are no diagnoses documented, nor is this described
anywhere, and so no measures were taken. We are addressing this now and will
continue to do so. This monitoring allows us to understand what is happening.
Of course, there are new tools and rapid test
systems available. We have developed 49 new test systems that can identify
pathogens in 30 minutes instead of 90 minutes. In response to one of your
questions at a conference, we ensure that our test systems focus solely on high-risk viruses.
There are 250 respiratory viruses. Testing all
250 would be impractical, as it is one thing if a person contracts an illness
and recovers within a couple of days, and quite another if they are attacked by about 50 viruses and feel seriously unwell. It is crucial to identify these as early as possible, and we include them in our new test systems.
Vladimir Putin: Not the common cold?
Anna Popova: That would not make any sense.
Vladimir Putin: Good. Thank you.
Anna
Popova: Thank you very much.