Major dysentery outbreak in Shostka (07/14/96)

Major dysentery outbreak in Shostka

KYIV - Health officials here acknowledged on July 8 that an outbreak of dysentery was out of control in the eastern industrial town of Shostka, Sumy Oblast, where nearly 700 people have fallen ill, Reuters reported the same day.

"This is an unprecedented dysentery epidemic in Ukraine," said Ministry of Health spokesman Anatoliy Voloshyn. Mr. Voloshyn said 685 people, half of them children, had been registered as ill in the last 10 days in the city of 130,000. A dairy plant, he said, had been established as the origin of the infection.

"This plant has been shut. People who were ill were working there without health checks," continued Mr. Voloshyn. "All health norms were violated."

The official Ukrinform news agency said regional officials had dismissed the town's mayor for failure to ensure sanitation standards. Markets in the city, also the site of a large chemical plant, have been closed, along with children's camps.

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