–PUBLIC HEALTH PROBLEM

On January 9, Prime News in Tbilisi reported that Khizri Aldamov, the separatist representative of Chechnya to the Republic of Georgia had stated that among the Chechen refugees settled in the villages of the Pankisi Gorge in Georgia, cases of hepatitis were becoming more and more frequent. It was beginning, he said, to look like an epidemic, especially among the children, but “there are no professional doctors in Pankisi Gorge and [no] necessary medications as well.” Aldamov said that he had turned to the Tbilisi office of the Red Cross and Red Crescent several times, “but no aid has been rendered to Chechen refugees.”