--- KJ <kjinkhoo at gmail.com> wrote:
> Sorry, I was being cheeky. I really don't think the
> heightened post
> 1990 mortalities can be attributed to the
> cardiovascular stuff. That's
> more long-term stuff, I think.
>
I'm just quoting what I've read, which is that cardiovascular problems in men are responsible for most of the premature deaths (I'm 1000 miles from being an expert). I thought RAND report summary I posted had interesting things to say about the Soviet health system's not being designed for preventative medicine or for "lifestyle" diseases -- maybe that's a factor. That might account for a time gap.
I think the US CDC released
> a number of
> reports on this matter and, as I recall, it told a
> sorry tale --
> heightened mortality from diphteria and pneumonia,
Diptheria is news to me. AFAIK the main problem as far as infectious diseases are concerned is TB, but that's mostly in the prisons, which have enormous TB infection rates.
> violence and
> suicides, strokes, and, yes, heart disease and
> alcohol poisoning.
The violence and suicides (and a lot of accidents) are usually alcohol-related (drunk guy decides to go walking without a coat in Siberia in February; drunk guy gets in argument with his friend and knifes him; drunk guy decides to go swimming). One huge problem is people buying tainted alcohol or drinking homemade alcohol. When Putin announced he wanted to create a state alcohol monopoly, he said that substandard alcoholic drinks kill 40,000 people yearly (http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/pipermail/lbo-talk/Week-of-Mon-20050627/013993.html) which is probably an understatement.
>
Nu, zayats, pogodi!
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