BACKGROUND In the past decade, the countries that emerged from the Soviet Union have experienced major changes in the inherited Soviet model of health care, which was centrally planned and provided universal, free access to basic care. The underlying principle of universality remains, but coexists with new funding and delivery systems and growing out-of-pocket payments. OBJECTIVE To examine p...

background and objectives: the aim of this study was to investigate the significance of multiple-mutations in the katg gene, predominant nucleotide changes and its correlation with high level of resistance to isoniazid in mycobacterium tuberculosis isolates that were randomly collected from sputa of 42 patients with primary and secondary active pulmonary tuberculosis from different geographic r...

The common shrews, Sorex araneus Linnaeus, 1758, inhabiting the territory of Belarus, are characterized by a significant variation in the frequency of Robertsonian (Rb) translocations. The frequency clines for translocations specific of three chromosome races: the West Dvina (gm, hk, ip, no, qr), Kiev (g/m, hi, k/o, n, p, q, r), and Białowieża (g/r, hn, ik, m/p, o, q) have already been studied ...

The Republic of Belarus reports a seroprevalence of 4.8% for hepatitis B virus (HBV) and 1.26% for hepatitis C virus (HCV), but little is known about the molecular characteristics of the circulating viruses. This study analysed 69 HBV surface antigen (HBsAg)-positive and 113 anti-HCV-positive donors attending a national reference hospital in Minsk. Among the HCV patients, 70% were co-infected w...

The aim of this paper is to analyse the political, social and economic background of the divergence of Belarusian and Ukrainian transitions. We focus on Belarus in order to find explanation for questions such as why could Lukashenko remain the authoritarian leader of Belarus, while in Ukraine the position of the political elite had proved less stable and collapsed in 2004. On the theoretical fr...

BACKGROUND While prior studies of thyroid cancer incidence within Belarus have increased since the 1986 Chernobyl reactor accident, the magnitude of increase is not well quantified. METHODS Using Belarussian national cancer registry data, trends in average annual age-adjusted thyroid cancer incidence rates were examined by calendar year and gender. Incidence rates were also examined across sp...

One of the major health consequences of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant accident in 1986 was a dramatic increase in incidence of thyroid cancer among those who were aged less than 18 years at the time of the accident. This increase has been directly linked in several analytic epidemiological studies to iodine-131 (131I) thyroid doses received from the accident. However, there remains limited ...

This article presents the experience of post-Chernobyl management in Belarus associated with information interaction with the residents of the affected areas. It shows the evolution of the communication system throughout the whole period after the Chernobyl disaster, from communicating mostly with decision-making authorities in the first post-Chernobyl years to gradually shifting the major focu...

European wolves (Canis lupus) show population genetic structure in the absence of geographic barriers, and across relatively short distances for this highly mobile species. Additional information on the location of and divergence between population clusters is required, particularly because wolves are currently recolonizing parts of Europe. We evaluated genetic structure in 177 wolves from 11 c...

The objective of the study is to analyze molecular epidemiologic surveillance for norovirus infection in Belarus over the past five years (2009-2013). Laboratory diagnostics was carried out by RT-PCR in 684 patients. Two regions of norovirus genome, localized in RNA-polymerase and capsid protein genes, were used for phylogenetic analysis. Noroviruses were predominant causative agents in adults ...