HEALTH MINISTRY TRYING TO STOP INFECTIOUS DISEASES FROM GETTING INTO ARMENIA

Arminfo
21 Jul 04

YEREVAN

Cases of malaria have lately been registered by the sanitary services
of Armenian districts bordering on Azerbaijan.

Artavazd Vanyan, chief of the state epidemiological and hygiene
inspectorate of the Armenian Health Ministry, told an Arminfo news
agency correspondent that flies from the neighbouring republic are
presumably spreading the disease, and epidemiologists are unable to
fight the natural migration of the insects.

At the same time, the inspectorate is developing an action plan which
will make it possible to control the epidemiological
situation. Sanitary and quarantine services will soon be set up at the
customs checkpoints on the border with Georgia and Iran, including at
the airports, to check the medical certificate of every citizen
entering and leaving Armenia in order to find out whether they carry
or not infectious diseases.

Armenian citizens who wish to leave the country must be vaccinated
against a number of diseases they might contract abroad.

These measures will be productive in preventing bird flu, malaria,
cholera and other diseases that have affected many countries of the
world from getting into Armenia, Vanyan said.