Mother and Child Health has been adopted as the priority of the Ministry of Health’s agenda due to the high figures of maternal and infant deaths. 2009 data show that 102 mothers per 100,000 live births died; 40% of these deaths are due to hypertensive disorders, 21.5% are due to obstetric bleeding and the rest are due to septic complications[1]; an amazing 70% are preventable. As for children, 29.3 out of every 1000 children die before the age of five years old[2], making Kyrgyzstan unlikely to achieve its MDGs 4 and 5.

UNICEF is working on strengthening policies at national levels and providing training and equipment to maternity hospitals at local level. UNICEF also aims to help mothers and children in the most deprived areas to have equitable access to quality healthcare services.

The number of HIV and AIDS cases reported in the country has increased by an alarming 25% in the last ten years, especially in the south[3]. The number of women registered as having HIV has risen from 1 in 2001 to 176 in 2009[4]; as for young children, over 100 cases were reported by 2007; either due to bad infection control in medical facilities or through mother-to-child transmission[5].

Furthermore, women and children diagnosed with HIV suffer from stigma and discrimination in communities, families and even healthcare facilities[6]. UNICEF has supported an AIDS centre in Osh, is training medical workers on Antiretroviral Treatments, and educating the population about HIV.

A recent outbreak of the wild poliovirus has erupted in the central Asian region, with most of its cases in neighbouring Tajikistan, and a few dotted around Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and Russia[7]. Up to now, Kyrgyzstan has maintained its polio-free status. However, to stay that way, National Days of Immunisation (NDI) have been organised with UNICEF support across the country, both in 2010 and in 2011; with 95% coverage of children under the age of 15 years old.

There is currently another vaccine-preventable disease that threatens the children of Kyrgyzstan– Measles. Immunisation against it is therefore on the agenda of the Ministry of Health and other developmental partners and UNICEF will seek to provide technical support.

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[1] Zulfiqar Bhutta, Maternal And Newborn Health In Chui Province & Kyrgyzstan: Assessment And Implications For Interventions, Ministry of Health and UNICEF, 2009

[2] Republican Medical Information Centre, 2009

[3] UNAIDS, Fact Sheet: Eastern Europe and Central Asia, 23 November 2010, at http://www.unaids.org/

documents/20101123_FS_eeca_em_en.pdf. The other countries in the region with 25 per cent annual increases

over the past 10 years include Armenia, Georgia, Kazakhstan and Tajikistan

[4] UNICEF, Transmonee 2010 Country Analytical Report - Gender Issues in the Kyrgyz Republic 10 years after the “Women in Transition Report”, 2010, p13

[5] Olga Grebennikova, New Ways to Resolve the Challenges of the 21st Century, UNICEF, 19 September 2009

[6] Galina Solodunova, Partners in Kyrgyzstan Unite against HIV Stigma and Discrimination, UNICEF, 29 October 2010

[7] UNICEF, Situational Assessment of children in the Kyrgyz Republic, 2011, p16