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Like many Central Asian countries, Kyrgyzstan continues to gain its
economic and political footing following the dissolution of the Soviet
Union in the early 1990s. Poverty is endemic — approximately 21% of the
population survives on less than $2 a day, according to the World Bank
— and when combined with an under-resourced health care system, 44% of
Kyrgyz people lack access to essential medicines, according to the
World Health Organization. With the changes in lifestyle that have
accompanied the development process, cardiovascular disease and
cerebrovascular disease now join perinatal conditions such as birth
trauma, low birth weight and lower respiratory infections as the
leading causes of death in the country.
Global Medical Assistance
Critically Needed Medicines Reach More Than 40 Health Care Institutions in Kyrgystan
Since 1996, AmeriCares has provided ongoing medical and humanitarian support to the Adventist Development and Relief Association (ADRA) in Kyrgyzstan. ADRA-Kyrgyzstan is a nonprofit organization that implements community development initiatives to address food security, economic development, primary health and basic education. Additionally, ADRA provides aid to disaster victims through its emergency management initiatives. AmeriCares Global Medical Assistance Program delivers medicines and medical supplies to support ADRA’s health and social services programs for orphans, the elderly and other vulnerable populations, including a remote medical clinic.
Additionally, ADRA-Kyrgyzstan and AmeriCares work closely with the Ministry of Health to provide nutritional supplements, medicines, medical supplies, hygiene products and other humanitarian aid to a network of under-resourced national hospitals and local social organizations. Through this partnership, critically needed products from AmeriCares have reached nearly every region of Kyrgyzstan, stocking the shelves of facilities ranging from rural primary care clinics to large specialty care centers in urban areas. In fiscal year 2007, AmeriCares provided 11 shipments of aid worth $7.2 million to more than 40 health care institutions in Kyrgyzstan.
The Central Asian Cardiovascular Disease Initiative
In Kyrgyzstan, cardiovascular disease contributes to more than 43% of all deaths and is the leading cause of reduced life expectancy for both men and women. To help address this public health priority, AmeriCares joined with Merck & Co., Inc. in 2003 to establish the Central Asian Cardiovascular Disease Initiative, which, working in conjunction with ADRA, addresses both hypertension and hyperlipidemia in Kyrgyzstan. This initiative currently helps 90 indigent patients manage their hyperlipidemia with the medicines Zetia, Vytorin and Zocor, all of which lower blood cholesterol levels, and provides routine monitoring by doctors who administer the program. These sophisticated medicines would be prohibitively expensive and unavailable to the patients without this program. This initiative is also being implemented in Uzbekistan.
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