Health Situation Update WHO/Emergency Preparedness and Response programme, central Asia 3 December 2001 Termez, Uzbekistan: cross-border activities set back after uprising in Mazar, NGOs and UN agencies redeploying. After last week’s disturbing events in Mazar-I-Sharif, all UN cross-border activities from Termez were temporarily set back at least one week. Twenty WHO health kits (basic health care supplies for a population of 200 000) are on standby for Mazar-I-Sharif and will be dispatched as soon as the situation becomes safe and distribution channels are ensured. A joint UN mission (OCHA, WFP, UNICEF and UNHCR) is currently preparing to set up logistic hubs in Ankhvoi and Jeyratan, in respectively Faryab and Samangan provinces of northern Afghanistan. Health coordination WHO holds weekly teleconferences on the situation in Afghanistan in order to coordinate health activities between the regional and local offices as well as with other partners. At the last meeting, Dr. Altaf Musani, of the Emergency and Humanitarian Action unit at WHO headquarters, encouraged the Regional Office for Europe to assist national staff in northern Afghanistan from Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan from their missions there. The WHO office in Termez is now operational and WHO co-chairs (with Dr. Corinna Reinicke of WHO and Dr. Abdullayev UNICEF) weekly health meetings there, in Nodir, head of regional health authorities in the addition to biweekly WHO-chaired health Surkhandarya oblast. Two health kits containing meetings in Tashkent, Uzbekistan. basic medical supplies for a population of 20 000 were handed over to local health authorities on Cooperation between health related agencies Monday 26 November 2001. is crucial at this time, and discussions targeting logistics, distribution and the flow of information between organizations will help avoid gaps and duplications. By 27 November, AMI, ACF, DFID, Solidarités, TSF (Telecom sans Frontières), ZOA, MSFB, Mercy Corps and Save the Children were present in Termez. However, they are still unable to cross the border into Afghanistan as only goods and UN staff may enter, on barges. Some NGOs have chosen to access Afghanistan through corridors in Turkmenistan and Tajikistan. Tashkent: World Aids Day World Aids Day events took place in the Fergana Valley and in Tashkent, the two provinces representing the highest reported HIV incidence in Uzbekistan. In collaboration with UNAIDS, WHO and a large number of local NGOs, media and local health authorities organized a range of activities, which took place on Friday evening on the student campus in Tashkent. A portable stereo for ”best reflection on WHO priorities in HIV/AIDS control” was presented to the winner of a drawing ”AIDS - the plague of our century” - Contribution to the contest by the WHO head of office, Dr. WHO-sponsored drawing contest on World Aids Day in Vladimir Verbitski. Tashkent. As a special feature, theme plays a widely used strategy for health information in central Asia – showing the two commonest HIV transmission forms: intravenous drug use and sexual contact with commercial sex workers, were performed. The first play told the story of a young man systematically tearing apart his family and brutalising his father for refusing to finance his heroin habit. The second featured a prostitute luring the young man into lethal vices. Sexually transmitted infections including HIV/AIDS are highly stigmatised (particularly in relation to homosexual activities, which remain penalized by law in Uzbekistan) in the central Asian republics. The real incidence rate is estimated to be as much as ten times higher than recorded, reported chairman David Pearce of the UN theme group on HIV/AIDS at the World Aids Day press conference. More details on HIV/AIDS in the region can be obtained from www.unaids.org. See their country-specific epidemiological fact sheets. The number of registered HIV incidence is rapidly increasing in the central Asian republics, demanding an increased awareness of the threat. In recent years, there has been a serious increase among risk groups (in particular intravenous drug users sharing needles, representing 67% of recorded incidence). Among the central Asian republics, the highest HIV/AIDS rate is recorded in Kazakhstan, where 2,343 HIV/AIDS patients were registered as of November 2001. In Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan, there were 585 and 168 HIV/AIDS patients, respectively. Although the epidemic is at an initial stage, there is a risk of substantial HIV/AIDS related problems at all levels, if action in the region is not promptly taken. WHO offices in central Asia are fully involved in the joint UNAIDS effort to inform and warn against HIV/AIDS. For more information about the activities of the WHO Emergency Preparedness and Response programme office in Uzbekistan, please contact: Henrik Moltke, information officer Jeffrey V. Lazarus, information officer Emergency Preparedness and Response Emergency Preparedness and Response WHO Mission in Uzbekistan programme C\o MoH, 12, Navoi str., Tashkent WHO Regional Office for Europe 700011, Republic of Uzbekistan. Scherfigsvej 8, DK-2100 Copenhagen Ø, Tel: (+998) 712-41-53-43 / 71-144-75-34 Denmark Fax: (+998) 71 144-10-40 Tel: (+45) 39 17 13 41 [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] or Dr Zakir Sh. Khodjaev National professional officer [email protected] Emergency Preparedness and Response WHO Mission sub-office in Termez UN Compund, Manguzar Street 53, Termez 732000, Republic of Uzbekistan .