Tajik Aids Threat Grows
Drug abuse and poverty are contributing to a sharp rise in the number of Tajiks falling victim to Aids.
Tajik Aids Threat Grows
Drug abuse and poverty are contributing to a sharp rise in the number of Tajiks falling victim to Aids.
Dikaev in Kulyab and Shamsiddin Orumbekov in Khorog (RCA No. 329, 30-Nov-04)
Tajikistan is being forced to face up to a growing Aids crisis sparked by drug abuse and lack of basic awareness about the disease.
But despite tentative government efforts to tackle the issue, experts warn the situation is deteriorating dramatically with an estimated 4,000-5,000 Tajiks currently infected with HIV.
Official statistics mask the scale of the problem, and health campaigners accuse Tajiks of “absolute ignorance” about how the disease is spread and ways of preventing it.
New infections are particularly high among injecting drug users.
The country straddles a major drug-trafficking route between eastern European and Russian, and as a result heroin is cheap and the number of addicts rising by 10-15 per cent a year.
Experts also blame poverty and political turmoil for the HIV problem.
More than 1 million Tajiks - about one sixth of the population - escape economic problems at home by working in Russia. They are particularly vulnerable to infection as most are uneducated, from rural areas and have no idea how to protect themselves.
When they return home, they often pass the disease on to members of their family.
Tolib, a 30-year-old from the Tajik countryside, was diagnosed with the virus after returning from Russia six months ago. The father of two is in shock and scared to tell his wife about his illness.
“I’ve been beside myself,” Tolib said. “I can’t even imagine where I could have become infected, now all I can think about is for others not to find out about my problem.”
A Dushanbe resident who spent six years in Russia and was infected by a prostitute said he doesn’t want to remain in Tajikistan.
“I can’t stay here and I don’t want any of my relatives to find out about my disease, because I won’t be able to put up with the shame and pity. I will go back to Russia to die there, a long way from home,” he said.
The director of an Aids centre in the Sogdy region of northern Tajikistan agrees the stigma of being infected in Russia is too much for many people.
“No one wants to admit they took drugs there or went with prostitutes,” said Khabibullo Oripov.
In Tajikistan, where 64 per cent of people live below the poverty line and 50 per cent have no access to basic health services, the 100 US dollar a month cost of treating HIV is far out of reach.
Human rights activist Oinikhol Bobonazarova called on the government to take responsibility for the current crisis by providing affordable treatments for its citizens.
“More effective measures are needed to fight this terrible disease, as the swift spread of HIV/Aids in Tajikistan threatens the country’s national security,” he said.
State authorities, however, are slowly coming around the scale of the problem - that at one time was never mentioned in public.
To mark Aids Awareness Day, the presidential drug control agency in late November joined with the Soros Foundation to organise a conference on combating the disease.
Major cities in Tajikistan now have testing centres where it is also possible to exchange needles and receive condoms.
A prostitute from Chkalovsk in Sogdy said at first she didn’t trust the centres but is now a regular visitor. “I get condoms there because of the fear of catching Aids,” she said.
Elsewhere, there has been a television advertising campaign featuring a man returning from Russia with toys for his children and a negative HIV test for his wife. The adverts are making an impact.
Shakhlo from Khujand in Sogdy said she heard about HIV from the television advertisements. “It’s terrible to think of someone close to you catching Aids. I would be scared to go near him,” she said.
Gulnora Amirshoeva is IWPR editor in Tajikistan; Bakhtiyor Valiev, Turko
Dikaev and Shamsiddin Orumbekov are IWPR contributors.
