Deputy Minister of Health to the Council of Ministers of the Ukrainian SSR, 'Concerning Measures being carried out to Provide Medical Aid to the Population during the Elimination of the Consequences of the Accident at Chernobyl AEhS'

[UkSSR Ministry of Health stamp:

"FIRST DEPARTMENT

Outgoing Nº 128s

30 April 1986

three sheets"]

Secret

Copy Nº 3

to the UkSSR Council of Ministers

Concerning measures being carried out

to provide medical aid to the population during

the period of the elimination of the consequences

of the accident at the Chernobyl' AEhS

During period since 27 April 1986 the UkSSR Ministry of Health has organized the implementation of dosimetric monitoring in the region, the sampling and research of environmental test objects, conducting a set of medical, prophylactic, sanitary, and epidemiological measures, and also provided skilled medical aid to victims as a result of the accident at the Chernobyl' AEhS.

The dosimetric monitoring in the region in the UkSSR Ministry of Health system is being done by the institutions of the sanitary and epidemiological service: the Republic's Sanitary and Epidemiological Units of the UkSSR Ministry of Health and all the oblast' sanitary and epidemiological units of the republic.

Mobile and stationary observations of changes of the gamma-ray background and the contamination of the environment have been organized in Kiev City and Kiev Oblast'.

According to data as of 30 April 1986 a sharp increase of the gamma-ray background from 50 microroentgens in the preceding days to 1100-3000 microroentgens per hour is being noted in the Dnepr and Podol'sk Rayons and in the city center.

In addition, there has been noted a contamination of samples of water, reservoirs, drinking water, soil, leaves, and the coats of animals in Chernobyl', Polessky, and Ivankov Rayons. The highest level of contamination (from 10 to 20,000 microroentgens per hour) was recorded in the samples from soil, leaves, and needles.

An increase of the multi-year level of gamma-ray background of two, three, or five times has been recorded in the remaining rayons of Kiev Oblast'.

An increase of the gamma-ray background to 140-150 microroentgens per hour has been noted in other oblasts of the republic (L'vov, Rovno, Zhitomir, Kirovograd, and Chernigov).

[The following] have been enlisted in the work in order to strengthen the institutions of the sanitary and epidemiological service of the city of Kiev and Kiev Oblast' the dosimetric monitoring of the area being implemented: the Kiev Marzeyev Scientific Research Institute of General and Communal Hygiene, radiological special mobile laboratories, and skilled specialists of other oblasts' of the republic. An expedition has been sent for dosimetric monitoring and the collection of samples in the Dnepr River and the Kiev Reservoir.

One thousand two hundred beds (the Kiev, Crimea, Chernigov oblast' hospitals, and the cities of Kiev and Khar'kov) have been organized for the hospitalization of people evacuated from the site of the accident and who have left spontaneously.

Additional teams of medical workers have been sent to the places of the greatest accumulation of population (Polesskoye and Ivankovo of Kiev Oblast') for observation, selection for hospitalization, rendering specialized medical aid, and carrying out preventive measures. [These] include: six line first-aid teams, seven therapists, six hematologists, five radiologists[,] radiation therapists, 20 doctor interns, and 40 graduates of secondary medical educational institutions.

An augmentation group of specialists of scientific research institutes have been enlisted to give specialized kinds of aid.

As of 1000 30 April 1986 a total of 468 people have been hospitalized, including 79 children. Thirty-eight people have been diagnosed with radiation sickness.

The victims are being given the necessary full and complete medical aid.

Additional medicines, blood preparations, blood substitutes, and medical implements have been sent to the treatment institutions giving the medical aid to the victims.

Preventive measures with iodine-containing and desensitizing medicines are being conducted.

We request [you] give instructions:

to the Ministry of Consumer Services to the Population of the UkSSR to organize the decontamination of people arriving from the region of contamination, everywhere;

to the Kiev Oblast' Executive Committee to prohibit the enlistment of students in agricultural work in an open area;

to solve the question of notifying the population of the city of Kiev and Kiev Oblast';

and to not allow the departure of people from the contaminated regions without dosimetric monitoring and decontamination when necessary.

Deputy Minister [signature] A. M. Kas'yanenko

uch. Nº 171

[two illegible signatures]