On a sunny day in November, a delivery truck arrives at a Family Medical Center in the city of Jalal-Abad in southern Kyrgyzstan. The atmosphere is cheerful: the truck is full of new medical equipment and supplies!
Since the beginning of 2016, a group of 20 American businesses specialized in manufacturing medical equipment and supplies have donated nearly 15 metric tons of items from their production to healthcare facilities across Kyrgyzstan.
These manufacturers include well-known companies such as Welch Allyn, Johnson & Johnson, and Glaxosmithkline. They came together to support Kyrgyzstan's ongoing battle against tuberculosis (TB), a disease that kills close to 400 people every year.
The donation and delivery to Kyrgyzstan were made possible with the work of the USAID Defeat TB Project and a non-governmental organization called the Resource and Policy Exchange. In 2015 they consulted professionals across the TB healthcare system to identify gaps in their efforts to stem the epidemic. It was found that they lacked a lot of basic supplies and equipment to meet infectious control measures and achieve modernization objectives to make treatment more effective and less costly for the government.
The equipment includes instruments to measure hearing loss among TB patients with drug resistant forms of the disease. The treatment of these forms of TB involve strong drugs which side effects can include permanent hearing loss. The timely detection of this phenomenon allows doctors to adjust their patient’s drug regimen and prevent this.
The total value of the donations until now is close to $1.2 million. More is expected to arrive in Kyrgyzstan over the next few years to support the country in its battle against the TB epidemic.
"I have been working here for 24 years so I have seen many projects" explains Mrs Imashova, "but this is the only one that provides us with actual medical equipment and supplies to help us in our work!"
The USAID Defeat TB Project is a five-year endeavor designed to reduce the burden of tuberculosis (TB) in the Kyrgyz Republic. Its implementation limits the development of drug-resistant forms of the disease, supports equitable access to quality health care for vulnerable groups, and strengthens the national healthcare system.
Credits:
Photos by Olivier Le Blanc