President of Russia
  • Events
  • Structure
  • Videos and Photos
  • Documents
  • Contacts
  • Search
  • Search this website
President of Russia
Mobile version

President's
website
sections

  • Events
  • Structure
  • Videos and Photos
  • Documents
  • Contacts
  • Search
  • Search
  • For the Media
  • Subscribe
  • Directory
  • Version for People with Disabilities
  • YouTube Channel
  • Русский

President's
website
resources

  • President of RussiaCurrent resource
  • The Constitution of Russia
  • State Insignia
  • Send a Letter
  • Vladimir Putin’s Personal Website

Special
animal welfare
projects

  • Amur tiger
  • Beluga whale
  • Polar bear
  • Snow leopard
  • Far Eastern leopard

Legal
and technical
information

  • About website
  • Using website content
  • Personal data of website users
  • Contact website team

All content on this site is licensed under

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International

Presidential Executive Office2023
Events

Ceremony to mark 100th anniversary of State Sanitary and Epidemiological Service

A ceremony to mark the 100th anniversary of the State Sanitary and Epidemiological Service was held in the Alexander Hall at the Grand Kremlin Palace. The President addressed the staff of the Federal Service for the Oversight of Consumer Protection and Welfare (Rospotrebnadzor) and presented state awards.

September 14, 2022
16:15
The Kremlin, Moscow
Prior to a ceremony to mark 100th anniversary of State Sanitary and Epidemiological Service.
At the ceremony to mark the 100th anniversary of the State Sanitary and Epidemiological Service.
At the ceremony to mark the 100th anniversary of the State Sanitary and Epidemiological Service.
Ceremony to mark 100th anniversary of State Sanitary and Epidemiological Service.
Participants in the ceremony to mark the 100th anniversary of the State Sanitary and Epidemiological Service.
Participants in the ceremony to mark the 100th anniversary of the State Sanitary and Epidemiological Service.
Ceremony to mark 100th anniversary of State Sanitary and Epidemiological Service.
At the ceremony to mark the 100th anniversary of the State Sanitary and Epidemiological Service.
Participants in the ceremony to mark the 100th anniversary of the State Sanitary and Epidemiological Service.
Ceremony to mark the 100th anniversary of the State Sanitary and Epidemiological Service. The President awards the gold medal of Hero of Labour of the Russian Federation to Irina Koval, virologist at the Centre for Hygiene and Epidemiology in the Kaliningrad Region.
Ceremony to mark the 100th anniversary of the State Sanitary and Epidemiological Service. The President awards the gold medal of Hero of Labour of the Russian Federation to Irina Koval, virologist at the Centre for Hygiene and Epidemiology in the Kaliningrad Region.
Ceremony to mark the 100th anniversary of the State Sanitary and Epidemiological Service. Nina Tikhonova, chief researcher at the Gabrichevsky Research Institute for Epidemiology and Microbiology, awarded the Order of Alexander Nevsky.
Ceremony to mark the 100th anniversary of the State Sanitary and Epidemiological Service. Nina Tikhonova, chief researcher at the Gabrichevsky Research Institute for Epidemiology and Microbiology, awarded the Order of Alexander Nevsky.
Ceremony to mark the 100th anniversary of the State Sanitary and Epidemiological Service. Galina Trukhina, department head at the Erisman Federal Research Centre for Hygiene, awarded the Order of Alexander Nevsky.
Ceremony to mark the 100th anniversary of the State Sanitary and Epidemiological Service. Vasily Akimkin, director of the Central Research Institute for Epidemiology, awarded the Order of Pirogov.
Ceremony to mark the 100th anniversary of the State Sanitary and Epidemiological Service. Marina Bryukhacheva, head of the epidemiological logistics supervision department at the Arkhangelsk Region Centre for Hygiene and Epidemiology, awarded the Order of Pirogov.
Ceremony to mark the 100th anniversary of the State Sanitary and Epidemiological Service. Mikhail Vilk, director of the All-Russian Research Institute of Railway Hygiene, awarded the Order of Pirogov.
Ceremony to mark the 100th anniversary of the State Sanitary and Epidemiological Service. Yana Gospodarik, head of the Rospotrebnadzor Division for Kamchatka Territory, awarded the Order of Pirogov.
Ceremony to mark the 100th anniversary of the State Sanitary and Epidemiological Service. Yana Gospodarik, head of the Rospotrebnadzor Division for Kamchatka Territory, awarded the Order of Pirogov.
Ceremony to mark the 100th anniversary of the State Sanitary and Epidemiological Service. Aleksandra Ivanova, senior researcher at the laboratory for epidemiological analysis and forecasting, Epidemiology Department, at Mikrob Russian Anti-Plague Research Institute, awarded the Order of Pirogov.
Ceremony to mark the 100th anniversary of the State Sanitary and Epidemiological Service. Lidia Kaftyreva, laboratory head and leading researcher at the St Petersburg Pasteur Institute of Epidemiology and Microbiology, awarded the Order of Pirogov.
Ceremony to mark the 100th anniversary of the State Sanitary and Epidemiological Service. Nadezhda Konstantinova, deputy department head of epidemiological supervision of the Rospotrebnadzor Division for Yaroslavl Region, awarded the Order of Pirogov.
Ceremony to mark the 100th anniversary of the State Sanitary and Epidemiological Service. Anton Lopatin, director of the Rospotrebnadzor Anti-Plague Centre, awarded the Order of Pirogov.
Ceremony to mark the 100th anniversary of the State Sanitary and Epidemiological Service. Anton Lopatin, director of the Rospotrebnadzor Anti-Plague Centre, awarded the Order of Pirogov.
Ceremony to mark the 100th anniversary of the State Sanitary and Epidemiological Service. Yevgeny Rozhdestvensky, director of the Altai Plague Control Station, awarded the Order of Pirogov.
Ceremony to mark the 100th anniversary of the State Sanitary and Epidemiological Service. Svetlana Rozhkova, head of the Rospotrebnadzor Division for Kaluga Region, awarded the Order of Pirogov.
Ceremony to mark the 100th anniversary of the State Sanitary and Epidemiological Service. Dzhangar Sandzhiyev, head of the Rospotrebnadzor Division for the Republic of Kalmykia, awarded the Order of Pirogov.
Ceremony to mark the 100th anniversary of the State Sanitary and Epidemiological Service. Anton Semenikhin, head of the Rospotrebnadzor Division for Chukotka Autonomous Area, awarded the Order of Pirogov.
Ceremony to mark the 100th anniversary of the State Sanitary and Epidemiological Service. Anton Semenikhin, head of the Rospotrebnadzor Division for Chukotka Autonomous Area, awarded the Order of Pirogov.
Ceremony to mark the 100th anniversary of the State Sanitary and Epidemiological Service. Lyubov Semyina, head of the virology laboratory at the Arkhangelsk Region Centre for Hygiene and Epidemiology, awarded the Order of Pirogov.
Ceremony to mark the 100th anniversary of the State Sanitary and Epidemiological Service. Rita Termulayeva, head of the Rospotrebnadzor Division for the Republic of Chechnya, awarded the Order of Pirogov.
Ceremony to mark the 100th anniversary of the State Sanitary and Epidemiological Service. Irina Tyumentseva, chief laboratory researcher at the Stavropol Research Institute for Plague Control, awarded the Order of Pirogov.
Ceremony to mark the 100th anniversary of the State Sanitary and Epidemiological Service. Yelena Lipina, consultant for infectious and parasitic diseases of the Rospotrebnadzor Division for Epidemiological Supervision, awarded the Luke of Crimea Medal.
Ceremony to mark the 100th anniversary of the State Sanitary and Epidemiological Service. Irina Shevkun, head of the Rospotrebnadzor Division for Epidemiological Supervision, awarded the Order of Pirogov.
Ceremony to mark 100th anniversary of State Sanitary and Epidemiological Service. With Anna Popova, Head of the Federal Service for the Oversight of Consumer Protection and Welfare [Rospotrebnadzor] – Chief State Sanitary Physician of Russia.
Ceremony to mark 100th anniversary of State Sanitary and Epidemiological Service. Anna Popova, Head of the Federal Service for the Oversight of Consumer Protection and Welfare [Rospotrebnadzor] – Chief State Sanitary Physician of Russia.

President of Russia Vladimir Putin: Good afternoon.

Friends,

I wholeheartedly congratulate those in this room and all staff members of Rospotrebnadzor who work in the regions of our vast country on the 100th anniversary of the State Sanitary and Epidemiological Service.

The service comprises 85 territorial divisions, 84 hygiene and epidemiology centres, 21 research institutes, 11 relevant organisations, and 18 anti-plague facilities. They employ over 67,000 people altogether.

The importance of Rospotrebnadzor to our citizens, society and the state is enormous and cannot be overstated. You have responsibilities in various spheres, all of which are focused on protecting public health and ensuring people’s welfare and safety.

We became fully aware of this – when I said “we” I meant the country as a whole – during the coronavirus pandemic and especially during the most dangerous and difficult initial period, when not only our country but the world as a whole knew very little about the virus and its specific features.

It can be said without exaggeration that the epidemic, which began unexpectedly and was truly horrible, came as a challenge to the whole of humanity, and it was your service that was the first to rally against it in Russia. You organised the necessary measures competently and quickly.

Let me note that prevention is the core principle and the very essence of what you do. Accordingly, your efforts to anticipate the way the disease evolved prevented it from spreading quickly, allowing us to buy time. This has been said many times, and I think that everyone knows this already. The entire healthcare system had the time it needed to prepare and to create conditions for effectively treating patients, while enabling manufacturers to launch production of the necessary medicines, equipment and PPE.

For decades, our country has been accumulating best practices for ensuring epidemiological security. It is essential that we cherish the traditions established by generations of public health officers.

In this connection, let me remind you that there was a debate during the 1990s reforms, and you know this better than anyone else, on whether we needed to have a sanitary and epidemiological service vested with extensive controlling authority and reporting to the federal centre. It is thanks to the firm position of the specialists and your senior officials that this system stayed in place. We now understand how important it was to keep the service running, as we have seen many times. Already in the 1990s, this helped the country overcome surges in cases of tuberculosis, viral hepatitis, diphtheria and measles.

Let me reiterate that our success in fighting the coronavirus pandemic is largely attributable to the integrity of the service’s top-down management structure, and its ability to take swift and effective action in extreme circumstances.

The staff of Rospotrebnadzor had to work hard, courageously and with the utmost dedication. In all the measures they took, they proceeded from a thorough analysis of the epidemiological situation in the region, devising clear procedural algorithms on a case-by-case basis.

The pandemic served as a driver for molecular and genetics studies, including the development of our own Covid testing kits. We reduced the time it takes to obtain test results by three times. I know that some regions have yet to overcome certain challenges in this regard, but the situation has changed dramatically compared to what it was like at the beginning of the pandemic. By the end of the year, Rospotrebnadzor will have 153 specialised centres devoted to these tasks.

Building a sanitary shield to protect the Russian people from potential biological threats is among our priorities as well.

This ambitious project will make diagnostics of infectious diseases fast and affordable and will make it possible to identify any unknown infection literally within 24 hours and, according to specialists and your executives, to develop a test system to detect it within four days.

I am confident that you will definitely be able to meet these challenges, which are directly related to the quality of life of our people.

Friends,

Humanity went through a long and difficult period before it learned how to control dangerous bacteria and deadly viruses. Above all, it was a path of gaining knowledge and skills, such as the complex process of creating vaccines and establishing seemingly simple rules of hygiene.

Combatting infections and epidemics began in Russia under Ivan the Terrible when the Pharmaceutical Prikaz, the first ever institution in charge of public health, was instituted. Peter the First transformed it into the Medical Chancery and Catherine the Great, into the Medical Collegium.

We pay tribute to many generations of talented and dedicated doctors and researchers. They often risked their lives in the truest sense of the word to discover treatments for terrible diseases that claimed thousands of lives.

Among these devoted scholars is Daniil Samoylovich, the founder of Russian epidemiology, who fearlessly and selflessly researched modes of transmission of the plague, made numerous discoveries and became known worldwide.

Drawing on the experiences of predecessors is one of the main traditions of Rospotrebnadzor, which was created on September 15, 1922. A network of sanitary and epidemiological institutions was created at that difficult time based on the foundation that was laid back in the period of the Russian Empire. Importantly, it covered the entire country.

I would like to note in particular the immense contribution your colleagues made during the Great Patriotic War, when both the battle fronts and the home front were reliably protected from outbreaks of dangerous infections.

Your work has always been based on the writings and discoveries of outstanding Russian scientists. The service’s development went along with the creation of research institutes and scientific schools, which gained traction and influence. Owing to their continuity, Russia is leading today in epidemiology, virology, microbiology and other sanitary protection areas.

Russian scientific thought and the extensive experience of its practical application helped to beat many dangerous diseases, while the protection of people’s wellbeing has come to be considered in an increasingly comprehensive manner with account taken of various aspects of everyday life – right inside society, as they say – including such crucial ones as the quality of drinking water and food products, and generally, in the broad sense of the word, protection of consumer rights.

Colleagues,

You honourably and responsibly perform the tasks that have been assigned to you. Yes, your work often remains in the shadows, as the saying goes, and is not noticed until trouble comes. But you are working proactively with an eye to prevention, and people in this country are often unaware of the huge efforts your service is making to protect their health.

This work undoubtedly deserves respect and the greatest recognition. I am referring, without any exaggeration, to the millions of people, whom your work has helped to avoid serious diseases and their no less serious consequences.

I want to sincerely thank all Rospotrebnadzor employees and veterans for the professionalism and reliability that you display in the course of your work, for your well-organised and effective efforts, and for your crucial contribution to the nation’s health and therefore to this country’s development.

Allow me to wish you success and all the best.

And, of course, I would be glad to present state awards.

<…>

Vladimir Putin: You may have noticed that at the beginning of the ceremony today I addressed you as friends. Frankly, during the ride in the elevator I looked at the text and saw that it says “colleagues.” But I cannot be described as your colleague. I am not a doctor, and so it would be wrong to pretend to be part of your profession.

Do you know what I was thinking during the ceremony? You are fighting an invisible enemy, a real and dangerous adversary – infections, pathogenic bacteria and the like. In this sense, you are fighting an invisible battle.

Yes, this is true. Just like it was during my time in the foreign intelligence service of the Soviet Union, you are seldom spoken about, seen or heard, but you are doing an extremely important job in the interests of our people and Russia. I saw more proof of this today, when nearly all those who received state decorations said, “In the service of Russia.” It was as if I was back in my former office.

Therefore, this is what I would like to say in conclusion. Colleagues, thank you very much, and congratulations on the centenary of your service. I wish you all the best.

Topics

  • Healthcare
  • State decorations

Publication status

Published in sections: News, Transcripts

Publication date: September 14, 2022, 16:15

Direct link: en.kremlin.ru/d/69347

Text version

Text
36
Photo

Share
Direct link
http://en.kremlin.ru/events/president/news/69347
Share
  • VK
  • LiveJournal
  • Send by email
  • Print
Send by email

Official Website of the President of Russia:

Ceremony to mark 100th anniversary of State Sanitary and Epidemiological Service

http://en.kremlin.ru/events/president/news/69347

Last updated at September 15, 2022, 10:51

Официальные сетевые ресурсы

Президента России

Official Internet Resources

of the President of Russia

Русский Английский
  • For the Media
  • Version for People with Disabilities
  • Telegram channel
  • YouTube Channel
  • State Insignia
  • Send a Letter
  • Vladimir Putin’s Personal Website
  • Putin. 20 years

Presidential Executive Office
2023