Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty
16 August 2004
TB-Infected Woman Hospitalized After RFE/RL Alert
By Emil Danielyan
A single woman facing starvation in a rundown residential complex in Yerevanhas been diagnosed with tuberculosis and hospitalized by medical authoritiesafter they were alerted by RFE/RL.
Zarik Hakobian, 44, is one of several hundred low-income residents of aformer factory hostel in the city's southern Erebuni district reduced to aslum dwelling after years of government neglect and indifference. She sharesits damp and disease-prone ground floor with about a dozen families mired inextreme poverty.
They said last week they have long suspected that Hakobian, a white-hairedskeletal woman who looks much older, is suffering from TB. Their fears wereborne out by doctors from a local policlinic who visited and examined herseveral days later, following an instruction from the health care departmentof the Yerevan municipality.
The head of the policlinic, Marieta Andreasian, told RFE/RL that Hakobianwas taken to a special tuberculosis clinic in Abovian, a town north ofYerevan, early on Monday. She said all of the woman's neighbors, among themsmall children, will now be checked for symptoms of the potentially deadlydisease which has spread dramatically in Armenia in recent years.
Andreasian confirmed that poor living conditions and a lack of sanitationwere the main cause of the TB infection. "Tuberculosis is a social diseasethat results from poverty," she said.
Evidence of the poverty abounds inside and outside the Soviet-era building.Its tiny rooms lack basic amenities and its courtyard is littered withgarbage. Some of the residents believe that the infectious lung diseasekilled at least two of their neighbors last year. But Andreasian effectivelydenied this, saying that her policlinic has not registered any TB casesthere before.
Citing a major increase in the number of such cases since the 1990s, theArmenian government approved last December a three-year action plan aimed attackling the disease. Officials said at the time that widespreadmalnutrition and a lack of heating in the winter makes Armenians vulnerableto the disease. More than 100 people died of TB last year, according to theArmenian Ministry of Health.
The incidence of tuberculosis is particularly high among prisoners.According to government estimates, some 400 inmates, or about 10 percent ofArmenia's prison population, have contracted the illness.
In the words of Vahan Poghosian, a ministry official in charge of theprogram's implementation, there about 6,000 officially registered TB casesin Armenia. Poghosian admitted that their real number may be higher as theauthorities are unable to register all such cases among impoverished peoplewho often can not afford health care.
"Finding and treating such individuals free of charge is one of the keyobjectives of the program," he said.
The anti-TB plan is worth at least $5 million and will require substantialexternal funding in order to be put into practice. Two German governmentagencies have so far been the biggest contributors, pledging to spend 2.25million euros ($2.8 million) on the provision of relevant drugs and medicalequipment as well as the training of local medical personnel.
Also involved in the effort will be the International Committee of Red Crossand possibly the French-Belgian charity Medecins Sans Frontieres. The RedCross has already provided $1 million to the construction of a tuberculosisward at Armenia's main prison hospital.
16 August 2004
TB-Infected Woman Hospitalized After RFE/RL Alert
By Emil Danielyan
A single woman facing starvation in a rundown residential complex in Yerevanhas been diagnosed with tuberculosis and hospitalized by medical authoritiesafter they were alerted by RFE/RL.
Zarik Hakobian, 44, is one of several hundred low-income residents of aformer factory hostel in the city's southern Erebuni district reduced to aslum dwelling after years of government neglect and indifference. She sharesits damp and disease-prone ground floor with about a dozen families mired inextreme poverty.
They said last week they have long suspected that Hakobian, a white-hairedskeletal woman who looks much older, is suffering from TB. Their fears wereborne out by doctors from a local policlinic who visited and examined herseveral days later, following an instruction from the health care departmentof the Yerevan municipality.
The head of the policlinic, Marieta Andreasian, told RFE/RL that Hakobianwas taken to a special tuberculosis clinic in Abovian, a town north ofYerevan, early on Monday. She said all of the woman's neighbors, among themsmall children, will now be checked for symptoms of the potentially deadlydisease which has spread dramatically in Armenia in recent years.
Andreasian confirmed that poor living conditions and a lack of sanitationwere the main cause of the TB infection. "Tuberculosis is a social diseasethat results from poverty," she said.
Evidence of the poverty abounds inside and outside the Soviet-era building.Its tiny rooms lack basic amenities and its courtyard is littered withgarbage. Some of the residents believe that the infectious lung diseasekilled at least two of their neighbors last year. But Andreasian effectivelydenied this, saying that her policlinic has not registered any TB casesthere before.
Citing a major increase in the number of such cases since the 1990s, theArmenian government approved last December a three-year action plan aimed attackling the disease. Officials said at the time that widespreadmalnutrition and a lack of heating in the winter makes Armenians vulnerableto the disease. More than 100 people died of TB last year, according to theArmenian Ministry of Health.
The incidence of tuberculosis is particularly high among prisoners.According to government estimates, some 400 inmates, or about 10 percent ofArmenia's prison population, have contracted the illness.
In the words of Vahan Poghosian, a ministry official in charge of theprogram's implementation, there about 6,000 officially registered TB casesin Armenia. Poghosian admitted that their real number may be higher as theauthorities are unable to register all such cases among impoverished peoplewho often can not afford health care.
"Finding and treating such individuals free of charge is one of the keyobjectives of the program," he said.
The anti-TB plan is worth at least $5 million and will require substantialexternal funding in order to be put into practice. Two German governmentagencies have so far been the biggest contributors, pledging to spend 2.25million euros ($2.8 million) on the provision of relevant drugs and medicalequipment as well as the training of local medical personnel.
Also involved in the effort will be the International Committee of Red Crossand possibly the French-Belgian charity Medecins Sans Frontieres. The RedCross has already provided $1 million to the construction of a tuberculosisward at Armenia's main prison hospital.
No comments:
Post a Comment