Little Rock— Two Russian physicians are working at the Arkansas Department of Health to learn laboratory methods and technologies used in the fight against tuberculosis.  The doctors plan to take the knowledge gained in Arkansas back to Russia and update existing tuberculosis laboratories.

Drs. Alla Polyakova and Irina Samoilova of Volgograd Medical Academy in Russia are spending the summer at the ADH on a grant from the American International Health Alliance, Inc. (AIHA).  During their stay they will learn mycobacteriology diagnostic techniques for M. tuberculosis.  The doctors are working in the mycobacteriology laboratory at the ADH with microbiologist Walter Pace and Suzanne Tidwell, TB-mycology supervisor.

Dr. Yelena Khromova, a native of Belarus (once a part of the Soviet Union, but now an independent state) is also working at the ADH as a summer graduate student intern on the TB Program. Dr. Khromova is studying in the U.S. on an Edmund Muskie Fellowship for graduate study at the Rollins School of Public Health of Emory University in Atlanta, GA.  Since the fellowship does not cover the summer months, Jim Smith, AIHA executive director, offered Khromova a summer internship at ADH.  Khromova is working in the TB Program under Drs. Joseph H. Bates, Deputy State Health Officer and Director of Tuberculosis Control, and Kashef Ijaz, MPH, Medical Epidemiologist.



The Russian doctors chose to study at the ADH Tuberculosis Control Program because it is one of the leading TB programs not only in the country, but also has an international reputation because of experts like Drs. William W. Stead and Joseph H. Bates.

Over the past five years the Volgograd Medical Academy in Russia and the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences have maintained a scientific exchange program for the purpose of fighting TB in Russia.  Unlike the U.S., large numbers of the Russian and eastern European population are infected with tuberculosis, with rates being two to four times those in central Europe.  Because of its international reputation for TB study, the ADH was recommended over the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) in Atlanta, GA.

Dr. Alexander Spasov, Vice Rector of the Volgograd Medical Academy and Dr. Sergei Nedogoda, Chairman of the Family Medicine Department of the Academy, visited Little Rock in July to plan future cooperation between their center, the ADH, UAMS and Central Arkansas Veterans Healthcare System.  Dr. Spasov reported that infection rates around Volgograd are about the same now as they were during a memorable epidemic during the 1930s.

"The major problem is the treatment of tuberculosis patients, because not everyone can go to see a doctor," said Spasov.

The ADH, in collaboration with the UAMS AHEC program, recently submitted a joint grant proposal with State University of New York at Albany to the Fogarty Institute at National Institute of Health.  This grant, if funded, will allow the ADH TB Program and the UAMS AHEC to train four doctoral level scientists from Volgograd in TB epidemiology and surveillance over a period of two years.

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