Russia investigates care home deaths in new Siberian health scandal

By Lucy Papachristou

Jan 29 (Reuters) – A criminal investigation into patient deaths at a neuropsychiatric care home in Siberia has found that staff failed in their duties, Russian authorities said on Thursday, in the second health scandal to hit the region this month.

The state Investigative Committee, which probes serious crimes, said professional lapses by staff had contributed to a mass outbreak of a viral infection that led to 46 people being hospitalised. At least three people died as a result of the illness and six other deaths were under investigation.

The care home is just outside the city of Novokuznetsk, where the deaths of nine newborn babies in the space of nine days shortly after the New Year sparked outrage across Russia and spurred a criminal investigation into negligence.

In the latest case, the Investigative Committee said staff were being questioned, medical records had been seized and forensic tests were under way to determine the cause of the infection’s spread.

The investigation is into “sanitary violations resulting in the deaths of patients”.

The regional health ministry said earlier this month it had detected 46 cases of influenza type A among a sample of 128 residents of the care home, while two more people tested positive for pneumonia.

Those who died included a 21-year-old woman with cerebral palsy and a 19-year-old man, according to regional authorities.

Ilya Seredyuk, governor of the Kuzbass region of Siberia, called the news was devastating, and said a commission formed by the regional government had been working on site since January 24.

“Materials requiring review have been sent to law enforcement agencies,” he said.

Kuzbass is a heavily industrial region of about 2.6 million people that accounts for much of Russia’s coal production.

Average life expectancy there in 2023 was about 70.2 years, well below the national average of 73.1 and compared with an average of 81.5 in the European Union.

Official data released this month shows deaths from respiratory diseases among working-age people in Kuzbass rose between 2022 and 2024, while overall mortality rates were higher and fertility rates lower than federal averages.

(Reporting by Lucy Papachristou; Editing by Mark Trevelyan)