April 25, 2006

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Can You Hear the Echo of Chernobyl 20 Years on?
By Oksana Shved, Ukrainian Red Cross Society
Reuters Alertnet, US
April 24, 2006

Vyacheslav Alexandrovich, born the year Chernobyl exploded, is being examined by Dr. Vladimir Sert, a mobile lab doctor who works in one of the six Red Cross mobile diagnostic laboratories that travel through remote, affected areas in Ukraine, Belarus and Russia, screening 90,000 people each year. (p13943)

Local villagers gather outside a former village school where the Red Cross mobile diagnostic laboratory has set up its equipment today.

Some have brought their neighbours and relatives in horse-drawn carts, the most reliable means of transport on these crumbling roads and backwoods trails.

“No doctors, no transport. If you get sick, it’s cheaper to die.” These words are heard in the queue as local residents of Kamianyi Brod village, in Northern Ukraine, line up for the thyroid cancer screening provided by the Red Cross mobile diagnostic lab.

Cases of thyroid cancer have increased markedly in irradiated zones, since the Chernobyl reactor exploded 20 years ago, releasing radiation equivalent to at least 20 Hiroshima bombs.

Although extremely aggressive, thyroid cancer can be treated successfully if caught early enough. That's why the Red Cross works in areas where health authorities have little if any capacity to detect and diagnose it.

Firewood burns slowly in a stove and school desks stand empty as the former village school welcomes its first visitors. Parents bring their children to exorcise the ghost of the Chernobyl disaster and make sure their loved ones are safe from thyroid cancer. Some will go home with good news, some won’t.

Tamara Alexandrovich, 49, patiently waits in front of the school doors with her son Vyacheslav, who was born the year Chernobyl exploded. “He’s underweight even though he eats well and plays sport,” she says. “Sometimes blood runs from his nose, he is stressed and nervous.” Vyacheslav is examined. His thyroid gland is not a normal size and he needs to go for further treatment.

“These symptoms are common among young people,” explains Dr Vladimir Sert, a mobile lab doctor who works in one of the six Red Cross mobile diagnostic laboratories that travel through remote, affected areas in Ukraine, Belarus and Russia. At the time of the accident, about seven million people, including three million children, lived in the contaminated territories.

“Residents who ate contaminated food in the days immediately after the accident received relatively high doses of iodine in their thyroid gland,” continues Dr Sert. “This is especially true of children who drank milk from cows that had eaten contaminated grass. Since iodine concentrates in the thyroid gland, this was a major cause of the high incidence of thyroid cancer in children.”

The main target group for the screening programme are those aged 0 - 18 at the time of the disaster. However, the endemic iodine deficiency, which increased absorption of the radioactive iodine 131 that was spewed into the air immediately following the explosion, puts the whole population at risk.

For this reason, and because this is often the only chance most local people will get to see a doctor, Red Cross teams never turn a patient away.

Established in 1990, the Chernobyl Assistance and Rehabilitation Programme is the Federation's longest-running humanitarian operation. Each year, the mobile labs screen some 90,000 people for thyroid cancer and other diseases. Each mobile laboratory team comprises three doctors, a technician and a driver. On each of their visits to remote villages, the teams stay as long as it takes to scan the local population. In relevant cases, they carry out blood and urine tests, checking for symptoms of up to 10 general health problems, and distribute multivitamins to children living in highly contaminated areas.

As the years go by, radioactivity decays but the sense of betrayal hasn’t faded. People who live in contaminated areas or were resettled are in constant distress. The Red Cross mobile laboratory teams are therefore also trained to provide essential psychological support to the local population.

Elena Khomenko, a mobile lab endocrinologist, deals with the daily fears of her patients. She believes that labelling the affected population as ‘victims’ rather than ‘survivors’ has led them to see themselves as helpless, weak and lacking control over their future.

“This has led to some reckless behaviour, such as eating mushrooms and berries from areas that are still considered to be highly contaminated,” she says. “Many Ukrainians live in fear, uncertain to what extent their own and their children’s health is at risk and not knowing where to turn for information. My aim is to bring them hope and confidence once again.”

Despite the passing of 20 years, nothing is safe here. Based on the available health data, scientists predict that the incidence of thyroid cancer will peak between 2006 and 2020. Dr Sert believes that more unpleasant surprises are undoubtedly on their way. Chernobyl is like a big laboratory in the Ukraine where experiments on human beings have been carried out, he says.

As Chernobyl is an unprecedented tragedy, its consequences are unpredictable and it continues to cast a dark shadow over an entire generation.

Any views expressed in this article are those of the writer and not of Reuters.