From MSNBC News:

      THE POLITICAL DISEASE

      If we have no healthy people, we have no economy. It's very easy to understand.

      Dr. YURI KOMAROV, Director of Russia's Public Health Research Institute

      * * * * But most experts say the single largest factor contributing to Russia*s dismal health diagnosis is the constant stress and psychological pressure caused by the economic and social upheavals that have beset this country since the breakup of the Soviet Union.

      * * * * The painful transition to a market economy has plunged about 70 percent of the Russian people into grinding poverty. Incomprehensible political changes have left people feeling cut adrift from the familiar moorings of the all-encompassing state system. The moral, psychic and spiritual strain of the last several years has had disastrous consequences for people*s sense of well being, and consequently, for their physical health

      . * * * * Pessimism and a loss of hope in that conditions will improve have pushed many people over the edge; in the past six years the number of suicides has risen by one-half.

      * * * * At the very moment when Russians need more and better health care, the public health system they rely on is breaking down. Doctors and nurses are poorly trained and abysmally paid. Hospitals lack modern equipment and drugs. One quarter of Russian hospitals don*t even have running water. On top of all this, Russia*s government is planning to slash the already-inadequate public health budget by half next year.

      * * * * Those short-sighted policies practically ensure that Russia will continue to suffer losses in economic productivity. *It seems to me that our government doesn*t understand the situation,* Komarov says. *If we have no healthy people, we have no economy. It*s very easy to understand.*

      * * * * If Russia*s economy somehow does turn the corner, and a greater degree official stability is established, Russians may begin to feel that life is worth living once again. But that process is likely to take years under even the the most optimistic forecasts. In the meantime, the costs of Russia*s monumental experiment in economic and social change will continue to be borne by its long-suffering people. In Russia today, the only certainty is that huge numbers of men, women and children are relentlessly marching straight to an early death.

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