Health and human security - Environmental and Human Security in the Arctic - page 183

The result is that Russians in general have a lower health consciousness on the individual
level than what is perceived as necessary in Western countries. As one Russian interviewee
put it: 'There is a big difference between Western and Russian attitudes to individual
health. In Russia, after 70 years of Communist rule, we still perceive health issues, also
individual health, to be a matter of the state.'
21 When describing this old health inspection or hygiene control, one Lithuanian interviewee
commented that there were benefits to the system: 'We were able to control the population,
and this is an important aspect of communicable disease control.' Another interviewee
made a similar statement, expressing regret with the fact that, of late, human rights
considerations prevent prison authorities from retaining tuberculosis-infected inmates for
terms exceeding their sentences if they had not completed their treatment.
22 According to one interviewee, there are about 1,800 trained general practitioners in
Russia, but only 350 of them have stayed on in primary health care. The same interviewee
pointed out that the low wages for general practitioners was an obvious reason for the low
number of general practitioners.
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