A new film produced for the International Committee of the Red Cross shows how Azerbaijan has managed to achieve some of the best cure rates for multi-drug resistant TB (MDR-TB) in prisons in the former Soviet Union and one of the best worldwide.
The European region hosts some of the worst rates of MDR-TB in the world, particularly in countries formerly part of the Soviet Union. This is largely as a result of a disintegration of effective healthcare after the deterioration of the USSR. This meant that TB either went untreated or was treated improperly meaning that drug-resistant strains were able to emerge.
The treatment of these strains remains a considerable problem in the region and in places of detention the issue is even worse. However, there is hope that the problem is being beginning to be addressed with Azerbaijan an example of what can be achieved with the correct focus.
The ICRC explain that the film shows how a combination of individual attention at the country’s central treatment facility, specialist follow-up care and solid political commitment, has made Azerbaijan a model for combating MDR-TB in prisons. The WHO has recognised that Azerbaijan’s programme is a model to learn from and has taken delegations from Iraq, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, the Philippines, and Turkmenistan to prisons to learn.
You can watch the ICRC video here.
Source: TB Europe Coalition