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The Head of the federal service briefed the President on measures to ensure nationwide epidemiological safety, the work of Rospotrebnadzor’s unified information and analysis system and the expansion of the pathogen monitoring network.

At the beginning of the conversation, Vladimir Putin congratulated Anna Popova and the service’s staff on their professional holiday, Day of Sanitary Epidemiological Oversight, marked in Russia on September 15.

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President of Russia Vladimir Putin: Good afternoon.

Today is your professional holiday, and I would like to extend my greetings.

In the past few years, you and your staff, as well as the entire country, have experienced serious ordeals. You have risen to the occasion, and I hope that you will maintain these high standards in the future.

How is the work proceeding?

Head of Rospotrebnadzor Anna Popova: Thank you very much, Mr President.

Of course, thank you, first and foremost for your greetings, your high assessment and for continuously attention to the service’s work. We find this to be extremely important. Thank for always hearing us and listening to us and thank you once again for your support.

Two years ago, you told our entire staff in the Grand Kremlin Palace’s St Alexander Hall that the creation of our country’s sanitary shield was a high-priority issue and that our main task was to protect the people from various current threats, including biological and hygienic threats, as well as any threats that may arise in the future.

If I may, I would like to briefly report on what we have managed to accomplish during this period under the extensive programme and task that you set for us, which we are fulfilling as per your instruction.

Last year, we evaluated our nationwide achievements and performance in implementing our tasks. It turned out that the economic losses prevented thanks to reducing the incidence of infectious diseases through measures that are being implemented totalled 865.9 billion rubles. Additionally, prevented losses, linked with environmental factors, when we were able to prevent non-infectious diseases, totalled 213.3 billion rubles.

What is also important is that people trust our sanitary and epidemiological measures 15 percent more than before. I believe that this, too, is a result that we will continue to build upon.

A unified information and analysis system has been created, allowing us to receive real-time data on every case of infectious disease reported by medical professionals across the Russian Federation. This information is transmitted to the central office within seconds, enabling swift analysis.

These are a few numbers on the amount of data, knowledge we get today. To ensure accuracy, we have loaded data from the past 30 years into this database so that we can compare current trends and gain an understanding of the evolving patterns.

This small diagram provides a clear illustration of current trends. It shows that in the case of intestinal infections, viruses are replacing bacteria. We are observing a decline in diseases caused by bacteria such as salmonella and dysentery pathogens, while viral infections are on the rise. This shift indicates that we need to adjust our approach, focusing more on diagnostics, PCR testing, and virus detection methods.

Moreover, there are numerous results we can use to better protect our population.

Vladimir Putin: Why is this happening?

Anna Popova: Viruses replicate more quickly than bacteria.

Vladimir Putin: They behaved like this in the past. What has changed now?

Anna Popova: Mr President, our behaviour has changed significantly. We are much more connected now than we were 100 years ago. Over the past 150 years, our lives have transformed dramatically. We have more social interactions, dine out more frequently, and are more dependent on how well certain health guidelines are followed.

The food preparation system has also transformed significantly. Whereas in the past there were small-scale operations or just a single cow at home, today we have large enterprises producing vast quantities of products at once.

In this context, our measures and oversight are crucial because any lapse can pose a risk to a large number of people. Viruses take advantage of these vulnerabilities and can penetrate the body rapidly. Additionally, they are smaller in size which makes them more challenging to control with conventional disinfection methods. As the world changes due to human activities, viruses also adapt to these new conditions.

I will not elaborate on all the numbers; you can see them.

We have established a three-tier pathogen monitoring network. First, PCR, a method that we now know very well. In the past, there were PCR laboratories, but now we have PCR centres that accumulate information and transmit data.

There are sequencing centres. You can see the increase we have achieved: there were 14 in 2019, but this number increased as a result of the pandemic. Thank you very much for supporting our proposals, as we now have as many as 54 sequencing centres.

Of course, we also have high-security laboratories. There used to be five, and today there are 20. These facilities allow us to work with the most dangerous pathogens and viruses in order to detect them.

Mobile labs have made a significant contribution by being able to reach any location in the country. We have also increased our capacities: there were five labs, and now there are 71. We can promptly reach any location in Russia that has roads to help patients with infections and investigate what has happened. Here you can see the network of mobile labs that we have. All of them use Russian-made all-terrain vehicles made according to our special rules and standards and can fit inside the Emergencies Ministry’s planes.

Mr President, if I may, I would like to present a project we are currently working on. Considering the demand for roads, together with Rostec and Russian Helicopters, we are developing the same well-protected and highly productive laboratory with removable modules based on our Kamov Ka helicopter. We very much hope to present a working model within the next three years. This will ensure safety in different parts of our country and abroad.

Our technologies for combating infectious diseases are in great demand in various countries.

At your instruction, we started collecting information about all the sequences in the country related to infectious pathogens. This system is now operational, and it covers not just COVID-19, but more than 40 pathogens, including flu, various respiratory viruses, hepatitis, and HIV.

In this way, we provide full control over viruses and can see immediately whether they are changing or not, whether there is some difference, or whether there is a mutation or not. Several different departments are actively cooperating with this system. Thus, we can see much more and react much faster.

Your another instruction was regarding the population and immunological surveillance. We came to understand the extent of immunity the population had to measles or purple fever, not only COVID (though we did begin with COVID during the pandemic).

As for the Kherson Region, we do not know how people were inoculated there, as the documents are not available everywhere. However, it is evident that the situation was mishandled and the quality of immunisation is very, very low. While immunity to mumps is 97–98 percent across the country, in this region it is only 65.7 percent. We must make significant efforts to avoid complications, and this is what we are doing. The same applies to diphtheria, which has an immunity rate of 83 percent, as well as poliomyelitis. Fortunately, this is no longer an acute problem, because we are working together with the healthcare system to resolve any problems.

As for other infections, it appears that West Nile fever is quite widespread in the region. Although they do not seek medical advice, about 11 percent of the population has immunity, indicating that people have encountered or contracted the disease. However, we do not know how they were diagnosed.

The same is true for Crimean-Congo haemorrhagic fever. This is a serious disease; 12.5 percent of the population has been affected, but there are no diagnoses documented, nor is this described anywhere, and so no measures were taken. We are addressing this now and will continue to do so. This monitoring allows us to understand what is happening.

Of course, there are new tools and rapid test systems available. We have developed 49 new test systems that can identify pathogens in 30 minutes instead of 90 minutes. In response to one of your questions at a conference, we ensure that our test systems focus solely on high-risk viruses.

There are 250 respiratory viruses. Testing all 250 would be impractical, as it is one thing if a person contracts an illness and recovers within a couple of days, and quite another if they are attacked by about 50 viruses and feel seriously unwell. It is crucial to identify these as early as possible, and we include them in our new test systems.

Vladimir Putin: Not the common cold?

Anna Popova: That would not make any sense.

Vladimir Putin: Good. Thank you.

Anna Popova: Thank you very much.