More than 7,400 cases of HIV in Kyrgyzstan. Money for treatment not enough

Since the first case of HIV in Kyrgyzstan, as of August 1, 2017, 7,499 HIV infections have been registered, including 6,400 among Kyrgyz citizens, the press center of the Ministry of Health reported with reference to the head of the Republican Center «AIDS» Ulan Kadyrbekov.

According to him, the sexual transmission of infection comes to the fore.

Therefore, a big problem for us now is the spread of HIV not only in key groups, but also among the prosperous population.

Ulan Kadyrbekov

«Working with the general population is not just about health. Health care can affect human health in only 10-12 percent of cases, the rest are behavioral reactions and the same precautions for sexual intercourse that we all talk about,» the director of the AIDS Center said.

«Given the decline in donor funding, the need to allocate funds from the republic’s budget is now the most urgent issue. At the beginning of the week we received confirmation from the Ministry of Finance for an additional 20 million soms for 2018. The budget for the item «medicines and medical products» will be 40 million soms from the budget and 3 million from the special account of the RC «AIDS.» And even this is not enough,» Ulan Kadyrbekov stressed.

«The new grant of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, scheduled for 2018-2020, is only $ 23 million for HIV and tuberculosis. Of these, less than $ 11 million will be spent on HIV, which is extremely inadequate, given that previously 7 million were allocated annually. In such conditions, government support is very important to us,» he said.