During the summer Baktybek was admitted to the National Hospital in Bishkek with a large abdominal haematoma. Until just recently Baktybek was the bread-winner in his family. He has four school-age children and his wife is a homemaker. When he got sick his entire income had to be used to purchase bandages and syringes, etc. But his family didn’t have money to buy the necessary antibiotics that would provide effective treatment.

In the Kyrgyz Republic, patients’ families are expected to privately purchase needed pharmaceuticals and medical supplies through pharmacies when the hospital cannot supply what is needed. One of the essential medicines Baktybek needed was Rocephin which costs approximately $200 for a ten-day course of treatment. Baktybek’s monthly income is $88.

Baktybek’s condition was severe; his doctors said he could die without immediate surgery and adequate doses of modern, highly effective antibiotics. However, thanks to Roche’s humanitarian donation of Rocephin, delivered to the hospital by CitiHope International, he quickly recovered and was even able to walk unaided on the fifth day following surgery. Baktybek was in the hospital for a month where he received a ten-day complex antibacterial treatment of Rocephin.

Baktybek expressed deep gratitude for the immense assistance provided to him through the State Department’s humanitarian assistance program.

All ten physicians in the surgery department received good clinical practice in Rocephin usage through this humanitarian delivery. All noted the high effectiveness of Rocephin as compared to similar medicines manufactured in Russia or China. The Kyrgyz physicians said that Rocephin’s action is noticeable on the 2nd day of its usage, and that patients almost never manifest any side effects.

CitiHope International has been an implementing partner for the U.S. Department of State’s Operation Provide Hope humanitarian program in the Kyrgyz Republic since 1997.