HIV/AIDS Rate Still at Controllable Level

Two children have been infected with HIV after receiving blood transfusions in Kyrgyzstan this month, but NBCentralAsia experts say the spread of the virus can be controlled with tighter controls on medical procedures and donated blood.



This June, two children have contracted the HIV virus in Kyrgyzstan after being given blood transfusions in hospital, according to local media reports.



According to Kyrgyzstan’s AIDS Association, 1,193 people were registered as HIV-positive as of June 1, including 95 people with AIDS. Around 910 were intravenous drug users.



According to the European regional bureau of the World Health Organisation, Kyrgyzstan is the only country that was completely free of the HIV virus until 1996.



The Global Fund to Fight Tuberculosis, Malaria and AIDS gave Kyrgyzstan five million US dollars to combat the disease in 2004, and is reviewing whether to give another grant.



Sagynaly Mamatov, director of the AIDS Association, says it would be wrong to predict an impending crisis.



“[A large proportion] of those who are HIV-positive are addicts who inject drugs, and their families. We are monitoring the general population, and there are no grounds for saying that we face a critical situation,” he said.



Mamstov explains that a special commission has been set up to investigate the case of a two-year old from Osh, because the child had spent time in 12 different hospitals. All these institutions will have to be checked, and it will be impossible to say where the infection came from until that investigation is completed.



In Kazakstan, 118 children were infected with HIV last year at a number of hospitals in the southern city of Shymkent. Mamatov said that because of this case, Kyrgyz doctors have been made much more accountable - all donor blood is closely controlled and only disposable instruments are used.



Aynagul Isakova, head of the government’s HIV/AIDS coordination effort, agrees that it is premature to say that Kyrgyzstan is heading towards serious levels of infection.



“Our epidemic is a recent one, and is only taking off. If we look at the spread of the infection, only 18.6 people per 100,000 [are infected], compared with Kazakstan, where the rate is over 80 people per 100,000,” said Isakova.



At the same time, Isakova wants tighter controls on safe medical procedures and blood transfusions.



Altynay Arstanbekova, director of the non-government group Positive Help, fears that the official number of cases could be much lower than the actual rate, and would like to see preventive measures extended to include rigorous controls on blood transfusions, testing for pregnant women, and a national awareness-raising campaign.



(News Briefing Central Asia draws comment and analysis from a broad range of political observers across the region.)