Bishkek, Kyrgyz Republic - On November 12th, at 10 am, the launch of the new Defeat TB program funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) will take place at the Republican Scientific Medical Library in Bishkek. Representatives from the Ministry of Health and other branches of the Government of the Kyrgyz Republic, the U.S. Embassy and international organizations will be in attendance. The five year Defeat TB program will promote international standards for tuberculosis care, and will reduce the spread of tuberculosis including its multi-drug resistant form. The program, implemented by Abt Associates, will complement the national health care strategy on tuberculosis. It will also support the National Tuberculosis Program in expanding the outpatient model for treating TB.

Though curable, tuberculosis presents a serious public health threat. Data from the National Tuberculosis Program showed that tuberculosis incidence in the Kyrgyz Republic grew from 100,4 cases per 100,000 of the population in 2011 to 102,4 cases in 2013. In addition, the Kyrgyz Republic has one the highest multi-drug resistant tuberculosis rates in the world. According to the same source, the number of confirmed cases of multi-drug resistant tuberculosis grew from 958 in 2012 to 1160 in 2013.

Multidrug-resistant tuberculosis is a form of the disease that is resistant the anti-TB drugs which can occur when these drugs are misused or mismanaged. Examples include when patients do not complete their full course of treatment; when health-care providers prescribe the wrong treatment, the wrong dose, or length of time for taking the drugs; when the supply of drugs is not always available; or when the drugs are of poor quality.

The Defeat TB program builds on the results of collaboration between USAID and the Ministry of Health of the Kyrgyz Republic through three USAID funded programs: Quality Health Care, TB Care I, and Dialogue on TB and HIV.

USAID supports the people and the government of the Kyrgyz Republic in the fight against the country’s most serious infectious diseases to save lives.