Central Asia

Yesterday, C. J. Chivers wrote in the International Herald Tribune that Turkmenistan’s heroin addiction rate is phenomenally high: but how high, no one knows for sure.  Under the Turkmenbashi, medical care was decimated, census and other facts not gathered, and crime prevention agencies turned increasingly to profit.

In this article, Chivers ties the increasing pall that heroin places over the country to other issues: human trafficking and prostitution; the rise of HIV/AIDS; connections with Taliban-fostered drug trafficking; institutional corruption; and the draconian prison system that has characterized Turkmenistan since before its independence, and which itself can help spread the virus.

In 2005, IWPR reported that Turkmenistan was “in denial” over its HIV incidence.  They also linked the spread of disease to prostitution, poverty, and drug abuse.  This denial is nowhere more evident than at the UNICEF site for Turkmenistan, which indicates that Turkmenistan reported only one HIV case in 2004.  Such reporting means that agencies such as UNAIDS have their hands tied and cannot offer much support.

Hopefully, Turkmenistan will start to admit officially what we know unofficially: but this will take time.  According to Abdulgamid at neweurasia.net, Turkmenistan’s officials are attending conferences on HIV for the first time ever, but are still in a state of absolute denial–at least verbally.  Chivers’ article also mentions a USAID program that Turkmenistan agreed to allow this past March, aimed at combatting HIV.  It will include education on the harms of drug use.

Other related USAID programs include medical training assistance for tuberculosis, as this disease finds HIV+ persons very susceptible; blood safety; and  HIV/hepatitis lab quality assurance.

The more that Turkmenistan can own up to, the more help they can receive.  We all know that things are bad; we all know we have the same problems; and we all know that Mr. Berdymuhamedov is trying to start fresh on many programs.  Asking for assistance would be a sign of strength-not an indicator of weakness.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 11th, 2007 at 9:41 am and is filed under Turkmenistan, Human Rights, Economy, Security, Public Health, Children. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.