The event was attended by Health and Social Development Minister of Kazakhstan Tamara Duisenova, leader of the WHO Office for Tuberculosis Masoud Dara, regional manager of the Global Fund Nicolas Kanto, Director of Korean Tuberculosis Institute Hee Jin Kim, chief off-duty TB-specialist of the Russian Federation Ministry of Health Irina Vasilyeva, the US Ambassador to Kazakhstan George Krol, representatives of the US Agency for International Development, Kazakhstan’s Red Crescent Society, the leading foreign and Kazakh scientists, TB specialists and experts.
The conference’s priority is development of the integrated vision of TB control, namely increasing access to rapid methods of diagnosis and treatment of tuberculosis at the level of primary health care organizations and strengthening joint liability of patients and physicians.
G.Abdykalikova, speaking at the conference, made it clear that the international community had achieved one of the UN Millennium Development Goals, i.e. to contain tuberculosis epidemic and led off the tendency for its reduction by 2015. As the result, tuberculosis sickness rate has decreased by 18% since 2000. On the present day agenda of the international community is ‘Elimination of TB epidemic by 2030’, clearly stated as one of the Sustainable Development Goals.
Also, during her speech the Secretary of State spoke about the achievements of Kazakhstan during the years of independence in the field of public health. G.Abdykalikova noted that in the long-term ‘Kazakhstan-2050’ Strategy the Head of State set out creating the necessary conditions for improving access to and quality of care.
The Secretary of State stressed that the country has a highly organized system of tuberculosis control, which covers all health and social security services.
The effectiveness of TB patient treatment has reached 87.6% under the World Health Organization standard 85%, among patients with multidrug resistance - 75.1%, while the WHO standard is 85%. The implementation of these measures has reduced morbidity 1.5 times (from 86.6 per 100 thousand population in 2011 to 58.5 in 2015), and the death rate from tuberculosis in 2 times (8.4 per 100 thousand. population in 2011 and 4.1 in 2015).
On the same day G.Abdykalikova paid a visit to the City Heart Center.