Activities of the Institute of disinfectology during the Great Patriotic War (1941–1945)

Before the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, our country needed for an unified scientific and methodological center for nonspecific prevention of infectious diseases. In 1940, the Central Research Disinfection Institute of the People’s Commissariat of Health of the USSR became such an institution (now – Institute of Disinfectology of the Federal Scientific Center of Hygiene named after F.F. Erisman). From December 1941 to May 1943 the Institute was evacuated to Kazan, but its work did not stop. Over the difficult time for the country, the scientists of the Institute were working on the search for new means and improvement of methods to control vectors of dangerous infectious diseases. Special attention was paid to pediculosis and chamber treatment of clothes as an extremely urgent problem during the war. The search and introduction of means for disinfection of textile and surfaces for intestinal and airborne infections was carried out. A laboratory for control of bandaging material was established on the basis of the Institute. Active work was carried out to develop methods of disinfection of drinking water. Employees of the Institute, often risking their own lives, provided assistance in foci of infectious diseases, conducted qualification courses for disinfection doctors on the basis of the Institute, trained and consulted disinfectors and other practitioners throughout our country. From the first days of the war, the workers of the Institute began to go to the front, many of them did not return home. In 1942, the director of the Institute joined the Red Army. The activity of the employees during the war surprises with the grandiosity of research directions and achievements. The contribution of the Institute to the Great Victory is glorious. Today we remember with gratitude the feat of our colleagues and continue to work to ensure the sanitary and epidemiological well-being of the population of our homeland.