Russian Federation - Laboratory for Fight against Pulmonary Tuberculosis
Another GPHF project was the first ever scheduled in one of the successor countries of the Soviet Union. At the request of the Federal Ministry of Health, the GPHF had agreed to an urgent motion concerning the support of a project to monitor and control pulmonary tuberculosis in the Saratow region on the Volga river.
In recent years, tuberculosis in Russia has been spreading epidemically, threatening in particular underprivileged persons in many regions of the country. Obsolete therapeutic measures and increasing drug resistances have resulted in a twenty-fold increase in morbidity and mortality rates. Without efficient and speedy intervention, the infections will spread at breakneck speed.
Roughly 2.8 million people live in the project area, the Saratow region to the north-east of Volgrograd. According to the latest statistics, over 10,000 acute cases of pulmonary tuberculosis have been registered, with one in four of the persons affected being in prison. The objectives of this project are: training of local medical staff in the latest diagnostic and therapeutic methods; improving the diagnostic infrastructure, and providing the drugs required.
The GPHF project focused on the funding of standard laboratory equipment for microscopic sputum analysis along with protection and hygiene measures in the operational area. For the purpose of this project, the GPHF has teamed up with the Foreign Office, the Federal Ministry of Health, the Johanniter International (JOIN) and the local health authorities.
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