In a sense, the very factors making for the successes of the early years in curbing the spread of infectious diseases were responsible for the inability to effectively cope with noncommunicable diseases that were becoming increasingly important. The Soviet health care system was based heavily on prevention, consisting of extensive screening measures and check-ups, although with little evidence for their effectiveness, which together with the introduction of antibiotics after the Second World War, contributed to major reductions in infectious diseases. This system of prevention, with its primarily medical orientation, did not evolve into one of population-based health promotion measures necessary for dealing with the new patterns of morbidity (due to noncommunicable diseases). While those in power were aware that an epidemiological transition was occurring, they responded by treating cardiovascular and other noncommunicable diseases as “social diseases” requiring a medical solution (7).

7. Tulchinsky, T.H. and Varavikova, E.A. “Addressing the Epidemiologic Transition in the former Soviet Union: Strategies for health system and

public health reform in Russia” American Journal of Public Health, Vol. 86, No.3, March 1996.