In spite of the high development speed of the modern medicine, the infectious deceases of past years are still of a significant threat for the health of the nations of the countries. Perhaps the main ones include HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria. Serious attention is paid to the issues of prevention and fight against these deceases all over the world, and Tajikistan is not an exception: throughout the period of our country’s independence an overall assistance has been provided by the country’s government and the international partners to protect the population from these deceases. 

Muratboki Baknazarov, the Secretary of the National Coordination Committee on prevention and fight against HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria (NCC) in Tajikistan, tells us about the work that is being carried out and its results. 

Epidemiologists calculated that for the last 50 years 23 million people died of the military conflicts, whereas three infections – HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria – have taken 160 million lives of people in different countries. Having such horrifying indicators the governments of all states in different parts of the world are paying special attention to the prevention and fight against these infectious diseases.

The Government of the Republic of Tajikistan in cooperation with the competent structures and a number of authoritative international organizations is also carrying out continuous work in this direction. The adoption of the National Programs to fight the above mentioned deceases, incorporated changes introduced to the legislation of the Republic improving access of the population, risk groups in particular, to the medical programs are the evidence of the efforts made.

According to M. Beknazarov, there is a yearly increase in financing the system of healthcare in Tajikistan: in 2013, there have been 920 million and 715 thousand somoni allocated for the healthcare system out of the state budget, which is 27.2% more than in 2012.

In this connection the government’s input into the state budget of the RT for financing fight against HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria increases.

According to the prognosis of 2015-2017, there are plans to increase the state budget by  more than 25 percent that does not include expenditures for the salaries of the employees working in the sphere of prevention and fighting these deceases, - he says. 

Besides, for the purpose of having a complex approach to the prevention and fighting HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria Tajikistan has been implementing successful projects and receiving grants from Global Fund to fight HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria (GF) since 2003. All resources are directed to prevention, diagnosis and treatment of these deceases, particularly among vulnerable groups of population; capacity building of the employees, improvement of their material and technical base etc.

The main recipient of the GF grants in our country is the UN Development Program (UNDP). Starting from 2003 there have been 11 GF grants implemented through the UNDP, summing up to more than $160 million. And according to M. Beknazarov, presently there is a certain work carried out to increase the capacity of the structures of the Ministry of Health and Social Protection of the Population of the RT for them to fully meet the requirements of the international donors for implementation of the international grants. 

 

- In spite of the fact that the Republican Center for prevention and fighting HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria (RC) have been the UNDP sub-recipients in implementing the GF funds since 2003, in 2013 the NCC and the Ministry of Health and Social Protection of the Population have adopted a plan of further capacity building of the RC to make it ready to implement the donor grants in the future on its own, - the secretary says.

The UNDP is providing significant assistance to the NCC and the Ministry of Health in implementing this plan.

- UNDP being the main recipient of the GF funds is actively rendering technical support to all national centers of the Ministry of Health and Social Protection of the Population (MHSPP) for the implementation of three National Programs, - Beknazarov says. – It includes procurement of medicines and goods, improvement of infrastructure that includes construction of new hospitals or renovation of the old medical facilities all over the country. Besides that, UNDP provides assistance in developing the technical documents, improving the laboratory diagnostics and in many other things. For these purposes UNDP involves international consultants to help manage the programs, finances and procurement. International experts help establish the monitoring and evaluation systems, prepare relevant normative documents that would correspond to the requirements of the donor countries.

Beknazarov stresses out that in September 2015 implementation of all current GF grants aimed at fighting HIV infection, tuberculoses and malaria will come to an end.

In this regard, NCC, MHSPP with the participation of the representatives of different ministries and bodies, UN Agencies and representatives of the international organizations have started development of the new application for receiving funds for the period of 2015 – 2017, - he says. – For this purposes in accordance with the GF requirements National Strategic Plans on three infections have been development. We hope that the working groups will prepare high quality applications and we, as in previous years, will be able to receive new grants from our main partner and donor.

To Beknazarov’s opinion, the usefulness of the GF funds is hard to overestimate. Thanks to this financial support the situation in the sphere of prevention and fighting the infectious deceases in the country has been significantly improved. For instance, according to the MDG, the program of the UN member-countries that along with other important aspects such as reduction of extreme poverty and child mortality rates, includes fighting epidemic deceases, our country has reached significant results in improving the health of the nation.

- For example, Tajikistan has reached great success in illuminating malaria, - M. Beknazarov says, - for instance, for the six month of this year there have been only three cases of the three-day- form malaria  identified. For the comparison, in 2012 there have been 33 cases of that kind registered in Tajikistan. Therefore, our country is close to reaching one of its main objectives of the Millenium Development Goals, according to which the spreading of malaria has to stop by 2015. There are positive dynamics observed in the situation with the HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis. Currently the number of people with tuberculoses is 67.2 cases out of one hundred thousand people. Whereas in 2011 this number was 83 cases among one hundred thousand people.

As far as the HIV/AIDS is concerned, starting from 1991 to the April of this year Tajikistan has registered 5843 cases of HIV infection. In 2010 there have been 1004 cases of this infection identified, whereas last year this indicator went down to 876. Beknazarov stresses out that currently people with HIV infection, tuberculosis and malaria are fully provided with the necessary medicines free of charge.