Kyrgyzstan

Tuberculosis (TB) is the most common cause of death in the prisons in Kyrgyzstan. Its prevalence is approximately 35 times higher than it is in the civil sector, and the proportion of resistant forms of TB is particularly high. Bad ventilation, dark overcrowded cells, and insufficient nutrition allow TB to flourish. Prison hospitals lack medicines, equipment, and trained staff.

Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) contributes to the treatment of TB patients in a prison and pre-trial detention center near the capital Bishkek, in the north of the country. In 2008 MSF helped to treat 400 patients for drug-susceptible TB, and 50 people who have strains resistant to first-line anti-TB drugs.

This project is implemented in collaboration with the medical department of the penal administration, the Ministry of Justice of Kyrgyzstan, and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). MSF’s role is to assist with the detection and diagnosis of all suspected TB cases in prisoners and with the treatment of people who have TB that is susceptible to first-line anti-TB drugs. The ICRC focuses on the treatment of patients who have multi-drug-resistant forms of TB (DR-TB).

MSF improved cells and TB facilities in the prisons, equipped TB laboratories, and continues to provide medical and lab materials. In 2008 MSF helped set up a system for the faster diagnosis of TB that is resistant to first-line anti-TB drugs in the national TB laboratory. Also, TB patients in MSF-supported prisons are being screened and vaccinated for Hepatitis B. MSF doctors and psychosocial workers ensure the application of treatment protocols and the patients’ adherence to treatment.

The new set-up will ensure strict separation of TB patients with different forms of the disease in order to avoid cross-infection and further contamination.

MSF has worked in Kyrgyzstan since 2005.

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