MSF TB Project | Amudarya rayon (district), Karakalapakstan

Uzbekistan 2020 © MSF/Gulziyra Nurullaeva

Uzbekistan

MSF works with the Ministry of Health to improve diagnostics and treatment for people with tuberculosis (TB), including drug-resistant forms of the disease, and provide HIV care.

Our work in Uzbekistan

In Uzbekistan, Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) supports the Ministry of Health to improve diagnosis and treatment for people with HIV and tuberculosis (TB).

What's happening in Uzbekistan?

In Karakalpakstan, western Uzbekistan, we focus on the implementation of a comprehensive care program for drug-resistant and drug-sensitive TB.

How we're helping in Uzbekistan

In the capital city of Tashkent and the surrounding region, MSF runs a mobile laboratory in collaboration with the Republican AIDS Center. Operating from a specially-equipped bus, the team provides rapid testing for HIV, hepatitis C, and syphilis, as well as information on treatment opportunities and specialist referrals for people who would otherwise have difficulty accessing diagnosis and care. In addition, we support diagnosis and treatment for people with HIV and co-infections living in vulnerable circumstances, in collaboration with Tashkent AIDS Center.

In the Autonomous Republic of Karakalpakstan, we run a comprehensive care program for patients with drug-resistant and drug-sensitive TB. We continue to support the rollout of treatment protocols reflecting global best practices, and promote shorter treatment regimens using newer and repurposed TB drugs.

In Nukus, the capital of Karakalpakstan, and in Tashkent, we concluded our groundbreaking multi-country clinical trial, TB-PRACTECAL, which investigates the efficacy and safety of a new treatment regimen for drug-resistant TB. Based on the results of the trial, the World Health Organization recommended this regimen for patients with multidrug-resistant or rifampicin-resistant TB in its updated treatment guidelines in December. To ensure the scale-up of this treatment regimen, MSF launched the SMARRTT (six-month all-oral regimens for rifampicin-resistant TB treatment) operational study in Nukus in October.

How we're helping

1,550

People started on treatment for TB

*Data from MSF International Activity Report 2022

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