Uzbekistan

In the capital, Tashkent, we support the regional AIDS center, with the aim of increasing access to diagnosis and care for patients living with HIV and treating co-infections.

We are currently responding to the COVID-19 pandemic in the country.

Meanwhile, we are continuing our multi-site clinical trial, TB PRACTECAL, at two sites in Nukus and Tashkent to develop radically improved treatment for people with multidrug-resistant TB (MDR-TB) and extensively drug-resistant TB (XDR-TB).

During the global COVID-19 pandemic, we reinforced infection prevention and control measures in health care settings, and ensured continuity of care for our HIV and TB patients. Innovative practices such as Video Observed Treatment (VOT) and Family-Directly Observed Treatment (F-DOT), in which health workers or family members watch the patient take their drugs, played an important role in supporting patients to adhere to their treatment during the lockdown. We continue to strengthen outpatient models of care that are tailored to patients’ needs and requirements, and expect to roll out VOT and F-DOT further in 2021.

In 2020, MSF started cooperating with the World Health Organization and the Joint United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) to implement the ‘one-stop shop’ model developed in Tashkent, in another region, Syrdarya. The ‘one-stop shop’ is a person-centered approach that allows people living with HIV to receive multidisciplinary care in the same location. This is the first time that such an approach has been proposed and implemented in Central Asia.