Alexei and Valerie
- cancer hospital in Minsk (Belarus)
Alexei and Valerie - Cancer hospital
in Minsk (Belarus) - Alexei (9) has got an intestine cancer. The town where
he was born is situated 80 km from Minsk and similarly like other regions
is highly contaminated by radioactive fallout from Chernobyl. "It is difficult
to judge if Alexei got his cancer from Chernobyl or not. But we have lot of
such patients from contaminated areas," says his doctor Ismail Zade from Belarus
pediatry center for oncology and hematology in Minsk. His young sister Valery
comes with her grandmother to visit her brother each week. The family is very
poor. The grandmother is retired but she still works to help the family. Her
salary is about 75,000 Belorussian roubles per month which is less than 40
US dollars.
Photo by Vaclav Vasku, 19th March 2005.
