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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contacts: 
Faulconer, Laura 
Senior Program Officer, Twinning Center
Washington lfaulconer@aiha.com

Soltan, Viorel 
Moldova Project Director
Chisinau viorel@aiha.moldnet.md

 

Public awareness and practitioner training are focus of campaign to combat tuberculosis   

WASHINGTON, DC and CHISINAU, MOLDOVA, September 22, 2006—Moldova’s successful public health campaign, “Tuberculosis Can Be Treated! See the Doctor,” is being expanded to Southern Moldova this fall to educate the population on tuberculosis (TB) symptoms and encourage people to see their family doctors at the first signs of infection.  

This new phase of the public awareness campaign, which is part of USAID’s Strengthening Tuberculosis Control in Moldova Project, implemented by the American International Health Alliance (AIHA) will be carried out during October and November in Cahul and its surrounding areas. Located in the southern part of Moldova, Cahul is burdened with both economic hardships and scarce availability of TB specialists making the disease particularly challenging to combat. 

The campaign will continue a successful series of public awareness activities carried out in Moldova in 2004, 2005, and 2006. TB specialists, family doctors, and trained medical students from Cahul Medical College will visit businesses, schools, and community organizations throughout the region to inform the population about tuberculosis and its symptoms, and how to prevent and treat the disease.  

A “healthy bus” will visit remote localities in the district to hold TB seminars and other educational activities where the epidemiologic situation is most problematic. Members of the villages will have the opportunity to consult with primary care or TB specialists. In addition10 informational meetings for local medical providers will be held and some 12,000 posters, brochures, and fliers about TB will be distributed.

In conjunction with the public awareness campaign, AIHA is joining forces with Moldova State Medical University’s School of Public Health to conduct 20 videoconferences on TB for approximately 500 medical professionals from all regions of the country. Over the past three years, the Project has provided TB training to 1,500 primary care professionals. These conferences are a logical follow-up to the trainings and represent the first step toward applying modern distance learning technologies to Moldova’s public health arena. The advanced training will help increase the number of TB cases detected at early stages, thereby improving patient outcomes.

The USAID Strengthening Tuberculosis Control in Moldova Project seeks to fortify Moldova’s network of TB laboratories, ameliorate the nation’s ability to deal with TB at the primary care level, improve surveillance capacity to track tuberculosis and the spread of multi-drug resistant strains of the disease, and increase public awareness about TB symptoms, treatment, and prevention.   

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. 

The United States Agency for International Development (USAID), funded by the American people, provides economic and humanitarian assistance in more than 100 countries to provide a better future for all.

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