Influenza Outbreak and Deaths at Kuzbass Boarding Home

The Prokopyevsk psychoneurological boarding home, whose residents have been hospitalized en masse with influenza, is once again at the center of a scandal. A commission investigating the causes of infection has identified nine deaths among the residents. Three of them — people of various ages and conditions — were killed precisely by the virus. But judging by what happened behind the closed walls of the institution, influenza is not the worst. NGS42 has gathered everything important to know about the situation in Kuzbass in one article.

The Outbreak Unfolds

Events at the psychoneurological boarding home have been rapidly unfolding over the past five days. Over the weekend, the public learned that at least 50 residents of the institution have been infected with influenza type A, and several more — with pneumonia.

In the boarding home where the outbreak occurred, there are people with severe congenital pathologies and chronic diseases. As doctors later confirmed to us, influenza is akin to a bullet for them — equally deadly.

Nevertheless, all residents were hospitalized on the day journalists learned of the outbreak, not when they began to fall ill. The authorities, represented by the regional Ministry of Social Protection and Ministry of Health, confirmed that a dangerous infection had spread in one of the buildings, and two of the residents were in serious condition in the hospital.

However, all departments assured that the majority of the disabled and elderly residents have asymptomatic influenza. According to their data, many residents were vaccinated back in November, medical assistance is being provided, and the other buildings are being inspected.

Law enforcement suspected that not everything was in order at the institution, with reports specifically of violations of sanitary norms, leading to a criminal case being opened.

At this time, employees of the boarding home contacted the NGS42.RU editorial office and asked for help. The staff stated that the influenza outbreak was not accidental but the result of systematic abuse of the defenseless. According to our interlocutors, the mentally ill, lonely, and disabled were fed rotten and expired food, left to freeze, including bedridden patients, in residential buildings, and ignored any health complaints.

Moreover, the staff claimed that the virus began knocking people down as early as November, and there were more infected — about 75, but the director, Elena Morozova, allegedly decided to hide this, fearing spoiled statistics and inspections. She did not report the numerous complaints and sick individuals to the hospital or to her superiors.

Soon, those female workers who tried to get information to law enforcement and inspectors began to be intimidated with dismissal, being suspended from work, under the pretext that they were supposedly ill with the same virus, although there was no actual evidence of this.

Victims of Indifference

On Wednesday, 28 January, sad news came from the medical facility where the sick residents were located — two of the patients died. Additionally, we were told that people are being buried right there, near the boarding home, in a remote birch forest.

Soon, we verified this personally, visiting that very «cemetery,» not marked on any publicly available maps.

On Thursday, 29 January, while preparing material from the graveyard, it became known that the «victims of indifference» are many times more. The regional Ministry of Social Protection spoke of nine deceased. NGS42 sources in the city hospital explained the role played by acute respiratory viral infection (ARVI).

— Many of the hospitalized had a number of concomitant diseases. Against the background of pneumonia, heart function worsened, in particular, which can lead to heart attacks in people with chronic illnesses. Unfortunately, there is almost nothing to help them, — explained a source from the publication.

This information was confirmed in a conversation with our correspondent by the well-known cardiologist Andrey Kondrakhin. According to him, influenza A virus causes such complications that often prove unbearable for the body.

Nevertheless, law enforcement and authorities promised to examine each case in detail, understand the causes, and, if necessary, punish those responsible.

«Prevention Through Violence»

Inadequate indifference to the fate of the disabled on the part of the management was written about earlier not only by the NGS42.RU editorial office. Local activists shortly before the outbreak stated that some residents are beaten, chained up, and tortured with sedatives.

Lawyer Alexey Mukhin wrote on social media that punishment from orderlies comes for disobedience, and beatings — as prevention of theft and escapes. In addition to testimonies from residents, he published footage from 2022–2025 showing beaten and chained to radiators people, whom he said are residents of the psychoneurological boarding home (PNI).

We sent a journalistic inquiry to the boarding home asking them to comment on accusations of horrific violence against those who, a priori, cannot defend themselves. No response had been received by the time of this publication.

The results of previous inspections — both by the Ministry of Social Protection and law enforcement agencies — have also not yet been published. But something else is known for sure: despite all the complaints, the boarding home«s management has so far retained their positions.

All new information about what happened in Prokopyevsk is being gathered in a special report.