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Tajikistan
United StatesImproving Tajik Public Health Through Capacity Building
Infant Mortality is a tragedy anywhere in the world, particularly so in Tajikistan where for every 1,000 children born in the country, 68 will not live to the age of five. This compares with an average infant mortality figure of 7 for every thousand born in western countries. Children facing malnutrition or poor sanitary conditions are particularly vulnerable to potentially fatal diarrheal diseases such as salmonellas, bacterial dysentery and other pathogenic infections.
In November, 2008, a training workshop was conducted in Dushanbe, Tajikistan, at the Republican Center for State Sanitary Epidemiological Control (RepSEC), covering a refresher on microbiology techniques, and hands-on work with polymerase chain reaction (PCR) equipment (procured by ISTC) and techniques. These techniques allow practitioners to identify more quickly the specific pathogens and collaborate with their counterparts worldwide who work in the same disease surveillance, and with these same state-of-the-art techniques. RepSEC Director Samardin Aliev indicated in his closing remarks that this is the first institute in Tajikistan that can practice PCR techniques to help the fight against these types of diseases.
The PCR Workshop was funded by US Bio-Chem Redirect Program, and conducted in conjunction with US-funded ISTC Project T-1257, “Acute Intestinal Diseases in Tajikistan”. The technical collaborator, Dr. Carl Mason, is based in the US Army Medical Component of the Armed Forces Research Institute of Medical Sciences (AFRIMS), in Bangkok, Thailand.
Dr. Mason stated at the conclusion of the Workshop that he is thrilled that the Tajik scientists in RepSEC now have the capability to perform state-of-the-art research in diarrheal diseases, and can communicate their results to researchers in the same field, world-wide. His feeling is that this is a very important step on the road to making the institute a major contributor in disease surveillance in Central Asia, and its subsequent support of national security and stability. Further, he feels this can play a part in attracting support for further work in other disease surveillance, thereby increasing its sustainability, through support from other outside disease surveillance agencies.
Collaborators of Tajik and other Central Asian Institutes, from institutes such as AFRIMS, NAMRU3 in Cairo, and UK Ministry of Defense and its team of collaborators, at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (LSHTM), recognize the need for greater interaction with these ISTC recipients, in the common cause of health protection.
This project is one of a number of health and environmental improvement projects that ISTC has supported in conjunction with expert scientists and research institutes in Tajikistan.
Through several ISTC projects, Tajik public health institutes are increasing their capabilities and are closer to offering to outside researchers the opportunity to conduct their own studies in the country. ISTC continues to perform outreach to the foreign researchers interested in international collaboration in the cause of disease prevention.
Team of scientists at the PCR workshop in Dushanbe