are too often found on Russian farms (Onishchenko, 2002; Pokroksky, 2002:5; WHO, 2003).

Although the public health situation in Russia is clearly similar to that in other industrialized nations, Russia faces several unique challenges in safeguarding public health and protecting its agriculture. The physical environment of Russia, in which diseases emerge and spread, geographically stretches across 12 time zones and 4 ecological zones, producing infectious agents that vary widely in type, frequency of occurrence, and persistence. Russia has densely populated industrial regions with well-established public health infrastructures, manufacturing centers in sparsely populated areas with limited support services, and vast agricultural regions. This diversity complicates the government’s ability to provide adequate protection from outbreaks of diseases across different regional settings.

Second, as Russia evolves from being a centrally managed but relatively prosperous nation to having a free market economy, social and economic upheavals continue to cause problems. Disruptions in living patterns and in the availability of health services have increased the susceptibility of large segments of the population to disease. Additionally, the sharp erosion of the technological base for the manufacture of drugs, vaccines, and medical devices has opened the door for a large influx of foreign products that now inhibit the recovery of a Russian pharmaceutical industry capable of producing cheaper and better products.

In recent years, the budget of the former Ministry of Health (now incorporated into the Ministry of Health and Social Development) has been slowly growing (see Figure 1.1), but it is still small relative to the needs of the population.