Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2002. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
International Federation of Red Cross and Red Cresent Societies - 12 September 2002
Ilmira Gafiatullina, in Ust-Kamenogorsk, Kazakhstan
Today, the first place she visits is the municipal fire station. "An easy site." she says of the disciplined group of fire fighters. While the fire fighters are waiting to be called to a job, Svetlana managed to explain fundamental facts about TB to the young men, answer their questions and distribute flyers on TB prevention.
"These people, the ones who have a full-time job and stable income, are more protected from infections than the poor and socially marginalized," explains Svetlana.
Her next stop is at just such a community, a city slum, inhabited by people living on the fringe of society. A woman dressed in tatters with a child in her arms opens the door of the rundown house. She smiles widely, recognizing her visitor.
Olga Kokorina, 37, is a mother of five children. Never employed, she looks after her children and struggles to make ends meet. Her husband, recently released from jail, contracted TB while behind bars. He was in hospital under a compulsory treatment programme but it was too late, Olga and the children have already caught the illness from him.
The two youngest daughters, Ksenya, 7, and Sasha, 4, and their mother have been placed under the care of the Kazakhstan Red Crescent and now, Svetlana visits them three times a week to bring them their medication and to make sure they take it.
"This is the only way to treat many infected people who are unwilling to take responsibility for their own health and for those around them," explains Svetlana.
She often gives patients her own money to catch the bus to the TB dispensary for a check-up. For most of her patients, who are alcoholics, drug addicts, ex-prisoners or merely unemployed, these trips are unaffordable. At the end of the long day, Svetlana pays a call to a district TB dispensary to pick up the medicine she will need for the next day.
"Without Red Crescent nurses we would not be able to cover the district with a population of 45,000 and ensure the recovery of outpatients," says Gulzhan Jakhmetova, a TB specialist. "They are incredible. They never get tired of making their visits, making sure that people complete the treatment, especially those we call defaulters."
TB is the most deadly communicable disease, killing 2 million people annually, a large percentage coming from Central Asia. The Red Crescent in Central Asia has been running the Federation-funded project on TB prevention for the last two years, reaching out to more than 1 million people. An extended network of nurses assist throughout the region, reaching TB patients, their family members and those around them.
It is challenging for the limited Red Crescent staff and volunteers to ensure the efficiency of TB prevention in communities overwhelmed by social troubles. What's more, people living with HIV are very vulnerable to TB since HIV diminishes the body's immune system. The Kazakhstan Red Crescent works to help ex-prisoners in this susceptible group.
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