Telling Our Story

On July 4, 2012 Alexander felt weak and had a fever. The next day he went to the AIDS center in Almaty to get examined. Alexander is 28 years old. A drug user since the age of 20, he is also HIV positive. The AIDS center referred him to the city’s TB dispensary. TB often develops in people living with HIV and is the leading cause of death among HIV-positive people. Alexander was tested using the Xpert MTB/RIF system and diagnosed with MDR-TB. One week later, he was put on treatment and he is now feeling better.

Elmira Karashalova works as a nurse at the outpatient clinic in her small village in rural Kazakhstan where her main duty is to administer the daily medication needed for recovering tuberculosis (TB) patients to become fully healthy. When Elmira took over this duty, she often found it frustrating. “Patients do not always remember that they have to take medicine; do not come regularly and don’t understand the importance of TB treatment. At first I felt very annoyed and nervous; I criticized patients severely for being late and for missing visits.”

BEFORE: This child, born in Kyzylorda, weighed only 700 grams (24.69 ounces) when she was born in 2009. USAID supported the introduction of WHO live birth criteria and helped train neonatal intensive care units. Under the old criteria, newborns less than 1,000 grams were considered dead.  Thanks to these new birth standards and USAID’s neonatal training, this child was given a chance at life.

AFTER:  Since USAID assisted the Kyzylorda Health Department, survival rates for premature babies have improved by 14 percent.

Denis can testify to the barriers people most-at-risk to contracting AIDS experience trying to access health services. Often they are discouraged from receiving social and medical services because of stigma. Due to their lifestyle or migrant status, they lack the documents (ID, passports) required for registration at medical facilities.