eases (HIV/AIDS, other sexually transmitted diseases, tuberculosis) and reduce mortality and disability rates resulting from these diseases.

The main objectives of healthcare agencies and institutions, as well as of the State Sanitary Epidemiological Surveillance Service of the Russian Federation, in the field of combating infectious diseases are as follows:

• increase the effectiveness of the system of epidemiological monitoring of infectious diseases through universal use of computerized information analysis systems and monitoring of the environment, and through collective immunity of the population

• develop regulations and procedures regarding the prevention of infectious and parasitic diseases

• implement federal- and regional-level programs to ensure the sanitary and epidemiological wefare of the population

• within the framework of the national vaccination calendar, improve the vaccine-based prevention system for infectious diseases and achieve vaccination rates of more than 95 percent among children

• on the basis of the “Prevention of Nosocomial Infections” concept, develop regional programs and take organizational and practical steps for their implementation

• strengthen organizational measures to combat infections emanating from natural environment sources and, most importantly, ensure timely implementation of steps to reduce the reservoir population and number of carriers

• continuously monitor the spread of influenza viruses, ensure their timely delivery to the Federal Influenza Center of the Ministry of Health, and incorporate new strains of the viruses into influenza vaccines

• formulate a plan of activities to develop regulatory and procedural documentation and review existing sanitary rules and prepare new ones governing organizational, preventative, and epidemiological activities for specific nosological forms of infectious pathology

• increase the public awareness campaign to foster individual and collective compliance with infectious disease prevention measures

• take necessary steps to upgrade laboratories in treatment and prevention institutions, as well as in state sanitary epidemiological surveillance centers, outfit them with modern equipment, and introduce advanced methods of clinical detection of infectious disease agents (polymerase chain reaction, etc.)

• increase scientific research in the diagnosis, etiology, treatment, epidemiology, and prevention of infectious and parasitic diseases

• expand the scope of R&D activities in order to:

  • develop new rapid methods and means of clinical detection of infectious disease agents