As soon as fall arrives, Moscow home physicians think and shop vitamins - not pills, but fruits and vegetables. Preventive care and cures for the common cold, of course, come first in these chilly climes. These problems bolster the national attraction to the home medic and his domestic remedies. Sophisticated medicines are difficult to get, and of uncertain quality. Wards are crowded, nursing care minimal and grudging, the food lousy. One can obtain five-day medical leave for a fever of 99.6, or lesser indications of the onset of disease.įew are reluctant to stay home, but all dread the hospital. Soviets watch for the slightest symptom of ill health with the vigilance of the party activist sniffing out unorthodoxy. Russians devoutly prefer to avoid "chemistry" in medication if at all possible, and they promptly offer counsel to each other and to the foreigner who is looking peaked. But most everyone dips into Grandma's medicine bag before seeking professional advice. Doctors regularly make house calls for the patient who is running a temperature. There are outpatient clinics within walking distance of most apartment blocks in Soviet cities. Live here a while and you find that every man, woman and child over the age of 12 is a walking compendium of cures.ĭenizens of new high-rise apartments from Moscow to Novosibirsk may have left behind them Babushka's rural izba and woodburning stove, but not her time-tested remedies for runny noses and rheumatism. The Soviet Union is a land of 200 million doctors.
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