Modern Challenges to the System of Sanitary Protection of the Russian Federation

Abstract

The current study summarizes and analyzes new challenges to the sanitary protection of the Russian Federation related to the dynamics of the epidemiological situation in the countries of the world and trends in the structure of international passenger traffic.The aim is to improve approaches to reducing the risks of importation of dangerous infectious diseases based on development of additional criteria for dynamic assessment of epidemiological disadvantage in foreign countries and individualization of risk determination in relation to all in-coming flights.Materials and methods. The present-day epidemiological situation was analyzed using data from reports and periodicals of WHO, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Ministries of Health of the countries and scientific publications. Information on the structure of passenger traffic is provided according to the portal of the Unified Interagency Information and Statistical System (pre-pandemic period – 2018, first half of the year 2023). Statistics on transport communication was obtained from the public reports of the Ministry of Transport of the Russian Federation and the Federal Air Transport Agency for 2022 and the first half of the year 2023. Information on the results of the sanitary-quarantine control (SQC) is presented according to the data logged in the automated information system “Perimeter”.Results and discussion. Taking into account the analyzed data in regard to the new threats to the system of sanitary protection of the territory of the Russian Federation, infections in the list of infectious diseases, requiring sanitary protection measures, should be differentiated into two categories based on the criteria of significance for implementation of SQC. A set of criteria, including retrospective analysis of morbidity, the presence of persistent conditions of stable circulation of the pathogen and the possibility of transmission from person to person in case of introduction into the territory of the Russian Federation, has been put forward for the most relevant medium-term assessment of the risk of importation. In addition, the increasing threats and challenges to sanitary protection dictate the need to use advanced information technologies within the framework of sanitary-quarantine control.