Gale Says Toll at Chernobyl Increases to 23

MOSCOW — The death toll in the Chernobyl nuclear accident has climbed to 23 and “a small number of additional fatalities” are expected, American bone marrow transplant specialist Robert P. Gale said Thursday.

The latest figures represent an increase of four from the previous total announced Monday at a news conference and includes 21 deaths from radiation and two from the original explosion and fire, the UCLA doctor said.

The official Novosti news agency said that 80 people flown to Moscow hospitals after the world’s worst nuclear disaster are still dangerously ill.

Meantime, a leading Soviet physician said in Cologne, West Germany, that 11 persons who received bone marrow transplants later died despite the emergency procedure. The report came from Dr. Yevgeny I. Chazov, a deputy health minister.

Gale, who came to Moscow to help treat Chernobyl victims, said he will go to the plant site Monday to make a preliminary appraisal of the long-term consequences of the accident.

Hoping for Agreement

He also said he hopes to negotiate an agreement for Soviet-American cooperation on a long-term follow-up of individuals exposed to radioactivity when the Chernobyl reactor, in the Ukraine, exploded last April 26.

While acknowledging that he cannot speak for the U.S. government, Gale said in a telephone interview that he hopes to obtain the cooperation of the National Academy of Sciences and the National Institutes of Health in the project.

Gale said he had been told by Soviet authorities that 1,000 people in the Chernobyl area were examined after the accident. Of that total, he said, 300 were identified as high-risk cases and 250 were flown to Moscow, while the remainder went to hospitals in Kiev, capital of the Ukraine, 60 miles south of Chernobyl.

Eighty people received a substantial dose of radiation, he said, with 35 of them having the greatest exposure. The 21 deaths, he said, came from the group of 35.