On September 25, 2014, a round table was held in Bishkek on the topic “Improving access and quality of anti-tuberculosis assistance to the population and ensuring a comprehensive approach to the prevention, treatment, and care of patients with HIV infection in healthcare organizations of the Kyrgyz Republic.” Participants included representatives from the Ministry of Health of the Kyrgyz Republic, including the anti-tuberculosis service and the AIDS service, the Mandatory Health Insurance Fund, NGOs, the donor community, and regional health coordinators.
The Ministry of Health of the Kyrgyz Republic, with technical support from the USAID project “Quality Health Care,” approved Order No. 482 on August 22, 2014, aimed at improving the quality of anti-tuberculosis assistance to the population, implementing harm reduction programs, and providing services for the prevention and treatment of HIV infection.
According to the HIV coordinator of the USAID “Quality Health Care” project, Bermet Imanberdieva, this order updated the existing regulatory acts related to the anti-tuberculosis service in the country. The project specifically supported the activities of the country's main medical authority in developing a system and algorithms for referral regarding HIV and tuberculosis for vulnerable groups. The algorithm was developed in Osh based on the regional Mandatory Health Insurance Fund and was adapted for use at the national level. It is intended to help vulnerable groups access anti-tuberculosis services, specifically those clients who are already HIV-positive.
All of this was done within the framework of comprehensive service packages that were developed in the republic and targeted at drug users and sex workers, MSM (men who have sex with men), including transgender individuals. As part of the implementation of these service packages, algorithms for HIV and tuberculosis were approved, along with new clinical guidelines for parenteral viral hepatitis, for which medical workers and NGO representatives were trained in the south and north of the republic.
Standards for harm reduction services, developed by local partners from the “AIDS-East-West” fund and also approved by the Ministry of Health of the Kyrgyz Republic, were presented at the round table.
