ISLAMABAD – The government is conducting DNA tests of charred body parts to identify the victi...Pakistani-controlled Kashmir elects new PM
MUZAFFAR ABAD – Sardar Attique Ahmad has been elected the prime minister of Pakistani-administ...Khyber Pakhtunkhwa rains kill at least 150
PESHAWAR – Flooding from torrential rains killed at least 150 people in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and...Otunbayeva tours south; Osh mayor defiant
BATKEN/OSH, Kyrgyzstan -- Kyrgyz President Roza Otunbayeva has begun visiting the violence-wra...Turkmenistan to blacklist some from leaving, visiting country
ASHGABAT -- A secret order by Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov that takes effect A...Migrant worker deaths, disappearances ignored, NGO says
KHOREZM, Uzbekistan -- Officials in Uzbekistan and abroad ignore the suffering of families who...Otunbayeva fires 7 Supreme Court justices
BISHKEK -- Kyrgyz president Roza Otunbayeva has fired seven justices of the Supreme Court, inc...Rogun to displace thousands
DUSHANBE -- Construction of the Rogun hydroelectric dam will require the resettlement of about...Tajiks expect decline in Afghan drug exports in 2010
DUSHANBE -- Better law enforcement and a fungus likely will reduce the volume of Afghan narcot...Uzbeks, Kyrgyz brawl near Moscow metro station
MOSCOW -- Tensions linked to southern Kyrgyzstan's June ethnic riots boiled over as Uzbek and...
Palaces for the ‘servants of the people,’ slums for the people
 Submitted by our Reader |
Radio Pointaht earlier this year broadcast programmes aimed at helping fight tuberculosis (TB). Officially Uzbekistan is tackling this problem effectively. One hears such slogans as ‘Wash your hands before eating’ or ‘It's better to be rich and healthy than poor and sick.’
Please take a look at the photos of a once famous tuberculosis treatment centre “Red October” in Tashkent. It provided TB treatment until Uzbekistan gained its independence, and what is left of it still does. The centre is now under the 2nd Hospital.
Substantial funds are allocated to combat this disease around the world. But what about us? How are we tackling the problem? This year already meagre financing for TB treatment was cut due to the 2200th anniversary of Tashkent. So far only 22 percent of the amount allocated has been released to combat the disease.
 Submitted by our Reader |
There is greed and penny-pinching on everything, ranging from top priority items such as drugs and food, which in and of themselves, of course, do not constitute comprehensive treatment of the disease, to electricity (power is cut at 8 pm, and there’s not even a light bulb in the lavoratories). But the problem cannot be blamed on expenses for the 2200th anniversary of Tashkent alone. The process of dilapidation has been going on for about 20 years.
In most cases, patients now have to buy their own drugs, but not all can afford to do so. Let's not forget that officially the treatment of TB is free. Patients who have not been treated adequately or who have not completed their treatment, however, evolve into chronic sufferers. Consequently, later on drugs fail because patients develop resistance to them and their cases become more difficult to treat thereafter.
In Soviet times, the buildings in the photos were overflowing with patients. Where are they now? With a large number of prisoners and ex-convicts and migrant workers in our free Uzbekistan, and with working conditions excellent for TB infection, the number of TB cases has probably increased and a number of TB sufferers live among us, unintentionally spreading the infection rather than being treated properly.
The government has found a quick-fix solution. It has abolished routine fluorography medical examination aimed at early detection of TB, now patients must [pay for] fluorography and all other needed examinations. TB dispensaries now have the instructions to not report cases and to accept patients only when they show obvious symptoms such as bloody sputum, or sputum positive for Koch bacillus.
 Submitted by our Reader |
Given the approach currently taken towards this problem by the government, I believe the result will be genocide of people in Uzbekistan. TB is a social disease that spreads in prisons and slums, and the poor, who represent the majority of the population in Uzbekistan, are the most vulnerable and at higher risk of becoming infected.
Let us turn to the doctors, nurses and other care-givers of the 2nd Hospital. The government has clearly abandoned its people, and the photo shows its policy towards public health.
The staff of the hospital, whose salaries are very low, do the best they can. Chief doctors try to maintain and repair at their own expense the buildings they are in charge of. At 6:00am the wards and compound are swept and mopped. The staff mops the wards five to six times a day. If the hospital has enough drugs supplies and the necessary equipment, patients receive all injections and manipulations strictly as prescribed. But that is rarely the case.
Have authorities chosen to ignore the consequences of inadequate tuberculosis treatment in the country? We have the necessary health professionals and compounds. What lacks is government commitment to provide the resources necessary to combat the problem completely.
I would like to stress that this is vital to the health of our nation. TB is a public health problem that should be a political priority.
I have also sent this message to the President of Uzbekistan, the Ministry of Health and other appropriate institutions in anticipation of the 2200th Anniversary of Tashkent, since the above hospital is also part of Tashkent.
This is to remind our leaders that constructing palaces for the ‘servants of the people’ should not be their only priority – people whom they serve need hospitals, treatment centres, schools, playgrounds for children and other social infrastructure.
Or perhaps one hand does not know what the other is doing?
Only three or four of 11 TB buildings are functioning well. The rest are in a heavily dilapidated condition, but continued to be used as well.
Reader Comments
I hope that others will write in such a clear way and bring to the attention of the world just what sort of a country and government the West is supporting to justify keeping on good terms with Dictator/Oligarch Karimov.
It is good effort of author. It is duty of every government to facilitate their peoples in health and poverty. New hospitals should be launched and a huge ammount of funds must be allocated for this purpose.
Bad rulers just like irresponsible parents with many children leave all things unattended. They do not care about the nation's (descendants') health, and their based on nature philosophy is simple, "the one who wants and can, will survive under any conditions." This is, probably, a way to solve the overpopulation problem in a a specific country. Tribes living in Amazon jungles do not even think about basic health care guaranteed by the state and take care of themselves (mortality is probably higher there than in Uzbekistan). Probably, it will not be until the ministers of health, finance and other sectors who adopt budgets and make decisions on financing social programs fall sick with severe tuberculosis and feel a threat to their life that they will pay proper attention to TB prevention and treatment.
It is the same situation in all spheres of life! I'll think about it and try to write in the same persuasive way about the sphere of life that I know of and where the situation is the same, or even worse.