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After screening 116,000 adolescents in the Ukraine for thyroid cancer and clinical depression over four years, the final report of the Chornobyl Childhood Illness Program (CCIP), released recently, concluded that "serious health problems persist 16 years after the Chornobyl nuclear accident, and this should be of critical concern to the people of the Ukraine and to the rest of the world."

The report was produced by Medical Service Corporation International, in Arlington, VA, the lead agency in the $4 million dollar USAID cooperative program. Dr. George Contis, President of MSCI, was overall project director for the program.

Drew University and five other U.S. organizations played key roles in the project. The others were Fordham University, University of Pittsburgh, Childrens Hospital and Overseas Strategic Consulting, both of Philadelphia, and Counterpart International of Washington, D.C.

Drew received $250,000 to help train mobile psychologists, clinical social workers, mental health professionals, and community representatives in clinical skills related to community mental health. Drew professors Michael Christensen, Arthur Pressley, and William Presnell, a Drew adjunct, played important roles in this psychosocial component of the overall project and did most of the training.

Christensen served as senior consultant/trainer responsible for coordinating the psychological component and Pressley was the main trainer of the mobile psychologists. The three faculty members made a dozen trips to the Ukraine over the life of the project.

In its final report, the CCIP outlined the following results:

• of 116,000 adolescents screened, nine were found to have thyroid cancer (1/13,000 screened), and were referred for treatment. This figure is over 75 times the normal incidence of childhood thyroid cancer (1/1 million).
  
  
• 1,967 adolescents were found to have single or multiple nodules–lesions which may be precancerous and were referred for followup exams.
  
  
• 13% of those screened had serious depression and were referred to clinicians. (Western researcher typically find 5-7% depression in the teenage population).
  
  
• 354 adolescents had attempted suicide and 813 expressed serious suicidal throughts.
  
  
• 1,200 psychologists and physicians were trained in newer psychosocial treatment approaches or ultrasound methodologies.

Overall, the final report said the CCIP project –through screening and intervention– can be credited with saving many lives.