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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contacts:
Fedullo, Emily
Program Officer
Washington efedullo@aiha.com

 
USAID-funded project helps Kazakhstan move forward with national efforts to prevent mother-to-child transmission of HIV/AIDS

Almaty and Karaganda, Kazakhstan, and Washington, DC, February 7, 2006—The American International Health Alliance (AIHA) will today officially open a Regional Training Center for the Prevention of Mother-to-Child Transmission of HIV/AIDS at Temirtau City Maternity House. Key government officials and AIHA staff are expected to attend this important event. The opening will be followed by a four-day training workshop using a curriculum designed by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) for use in low-resource settings around the globe. AIHA has adapted this curriculum—the WHO/CDC PMTCT Generic Training Package—specifically for use in Kazakhstan.

This project was made possible through financial support from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the Academy for Educational Development (AED) and is being conducted in close cooperation with the Kazakh Ministry of Health, national and oblast AIDS centers, and the Karaganda Oblast Health Administration.

Currently, the number of people living with HIV/AIDS in Kazakhstan is low in comparison to other countries of the former Soviet Union such as Russia and Ukraine, but the rate of new infections is increasing at an alarming pace. As Kazakhstan and other nations in the region work to stop the epidemic when it is still in its early stages, preventing mother-to-child transmission of the virus has emerged as a key element of their comprehensive strategy to combat HIV/AIDS.

In response, AIHA is implementing a regional effort to foster the development of national PMTCT policies and strategies; related national capacity-building strategies; local pilot projects that can serve as centers of PMTCT excellence and models for replication; and training centers and programs that can provide both knowledge-based and clinical-based training. To this end, AIHA is working closely with CDC, UNICEF, WHO, and other organizations to adapt international guidelines, training programs, and related evidence-based strategies and standards.

The WHO/CDC PMTCT Generic Training Package is a comprehensive evidence- and knowledge-based training course for preventing vertical transmission of HIV in settings with limited resources. The package is the result of a significant multi-year collaboration between WHO, CDC, and other key international agencies and is designed to provide an overview of the fundamental principles of a sustainable PMTCT program; train healthcare workers to deliver basic PMTCT services; allow flexibility for integrating country-specific PMTCT policies and procedures; and create a mechanism for human capacity-building to support PMTCT service delivery programs. All changes AIHA has made to the Training Package for use in Kazakhstan, Russia, and Ukraine reflect national policies, specifics of the epidemiological HIV/AIDS data in each country, local practices, and available PMTCT regimens, among other things.

The training center—which was created to provide PMTCT training services to the entire Central Asia region—will draw on the skills and experience of national trainers from Almaty, Karaganda, Pavlodar, and Temirtau who have already participated in numerous PMTCT trainings in Kiev, Odessa, and St. Petersburg. Training center curricula will include the WHO/CDC PMTCT Generic Training Package, a PMTCT course for ob/gyns, and a course in HIV/AIDS voluntary counseling and testing. AIHA has equipped the center with computers, office equipment, and training aids. Participants at this first workshop will include faculty from medical schools throughout Kazakhstan.

Created in 1992 by a consortium of major healthcare provider associations and professional medical education organizations, AIHA establishes and manages twinning partnerships between health-related institutions in the United States and their counterparts in Africa, Asia, Eurasia, and the Caribbean. Since its inception, AIHA has supported more than 120 partnerships linking dedicated volunteers in the United States with communities, institutions, and individual colleagues overseas in a concerted effort to improve health service delivery in countries with limited resources. Operating under various cooperative agreements and grants from US and international donor agencies including the United States Agency for International Development (USAID); the US Department of Health and Human Services, Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA); the World Health Organization (WHO); the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria; and Deutsche Gesellschaft fur Technische Zusammenarbeit (GTZ), AIHA, its partnerships, and complementary programs represent one of the US healthcare sector’s most coordinated responses to global health issues. Support for the HIV/AIDS Twinning Center is provided by HRSA, a leading provider of HIV/AIDS care and treatment services to underserved populations in resource-poor settings in the United States and, more recently, throughout the world.

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