Anti-tuberculosis project launched in four districts of Kulob region in Khatlon

KULOB, December 12, 2011, Asia-Plus  -- A year-long program entitled “Together We Will Win Tuberculosis” has been launched in four districts of the Kulob region in Khatlon province – Khovaling, Shouroobod, Muminobod and Temourmalik.

Avazkhon Sirojev, the head of the Khovaling-based Sadoi Kuhsor NGO, which is implementing the program, told Asia-Plus today that the program is being implemented under financial support of the Project HOPE (Health Opportunities for People Everywhere).

According to him, those four districts have been chosen for the program not accidentally.  “This year, 66 new TB cases have been detected in Khovaling, 146 in Muminobod, 65 in Shouroobod and 89 in Temourmalik,” Sirojev said.

The TB findings for 2011 demonstrate that the disease does not show downward trend in the area.  “More than three fourths of officially registered TB patients in the Kulob region suffer from pulmonary tuberculosis,” Sirojev said, noting that part of the TB patients is labor migrants who have returned from Russia.

Besides, remoteness of these districts from specialized medical facilities complicates treatment of the disease and poor TB awareness of the population promotes transmission of tuberculosis, he added.

The program includes a wide range of events, including creation of mechanism of joint work of local authorities, primary medical, centers rendering medical and sanitary aid, TB/TODS centers and trust points with support from TB sufferers.

“We will arrange registration of al TB patients discharged for at home treatments and volunteers will control fulfillment by them of physicians’ prescriptions,” said Sirojev, “We will also train primary medical and sanitary aid workers and involve a many as possible activists in the TB combating campaign in communities.  We will also organize roundtables to discuss specific recommendations on the most neglected problems and organize publication and distribution of brochures both in the Tajik and Uzbek languages.”