18,000 Near Chernobyl Briefly Hospitalized; Death Toll Up to 25

A total of 18,000 people in the Chernobyl area were briefly hospitalized with suspicious symptoms after the world’s worst nuclear accident, but they showed no signs of radiation sickness, a Soviet doctor said Tuesday.

These patients all were released after a few days, according to Dr. Leonid Ilyin, head of a Moscow hospital that is treating some of the most seriously injured victims.

His statement at a news conference called by the International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War was the first indication of the number of people requiring medical attention after the release of radiation from the Chernobyl reactor in the Ukraine starting April 26.

Meantime, the death toll from the nuclear accident rose from 23 to 25, Deputy Health Minister Yevgeny I. Chazov said, with 30 people listed in “critical” condition.

Ilyin said 89 of the 300 people reported to have received the most serious doses of radiation have already been discharged from the hospital.

The 18,000 people briefly hospitalized complained of a variety of ailments, including headaches, coughing spells and respiratory problems, and some were spitting blood, he said.

“None of those examined displayed radiation sickness,” Ilyin said. In all, he said, a total of 100,000 persons from the Chernobyl area were tested for radiation by doctors in the surrounding area.

“In any evacuation, there is psychological stress and different people react differently, so we wanted . . . wanted to check everyone who was complaining,” Ilyin added.

Soviet television viewers were given their first look at some of the hospitalized firemen who battled the blaze at the Chernobyl reactor when radiation levels were at their peak.

Film shown on the nightly television news, taken in a Moscow hospital, indicated that several of the firefighters had lost their hair, a common result of radiation exposure.

Sgt. Alexander Petrovsky, a young man who was totally bald, was pictured standing and shaving himself.

“I would like to go home,” he told a reporter.

Patient Offers Thanks

Lt. Peter Khmel, also bald, said he felt well and wanted to thank his doctors for their care. Another firefighter, Sgt. Vasily Byalava, apparently had lost almost all of his hair.

In another development, the official news agency Tass said that about 260 families evacuated from the Chernobyl danger zone are now ready to return after decontamination work had been completed.

The families were going back to the villages of Glinki, Zamoshye and Bychki in the Kiev region, the Tass report said. Farming has been resumed in the Chernobyl district, the news agency also reported.