UNICEF in ActionUNICEF supports the Government’s goal of ensuring that at least 50% of pregnant women, mothers of young children and children under five years of age have access to quality primary health care services by the end of 2010. UNICEF is cooperating with other international donors to support the Government’s Health Reform Programme and to help ensure that the health needs of children are fully met. UNICEF provided technical support to the Ministry of Health to develop child-relevant sections in the National Programme “Manas Taalimi 2006-2010”. This mandates that all pregnant women will receive free antenatal care when visiting family group practitioners, free care during delivery, and children under five will be exempt from any payment or other charges when obtaining in-patient and out-patient care. With UNICEF’s assistance, 25 maternity hospitals and delivery departments in provincial hospitals have been certified as “Baby-Friendly Hospitals”. This means that about half of all newborns each year stay with their mothers straight after delivery and are exclusively breastfed. Their mothers also receive essential information on how to care for and feed their children. UNICEF supports the Ministry of Health in maintaining immunisation levels by providing technical and communication support. It is estimated that $1 spent on immunisation saves the state $10 in treating vaccine preventable diseases. With support from UNICEF and other partners in the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization (GAVI), Kyrgyzstan has eliminated polio and through campaigns in 2000-2003 the country reduced the incidence of measles and rubella. Two national immunisation campaigns, backed by UNICEF, have reached 1.9 million children and young people aged 7 to 25 (99.3% of that agegroup) against measles and rubella. And 360,000 women of childbearing age have been immunised against rubella to prevent congenital blindness, deafness or heart defects in newborns. In the area of primary health care, UNICEF supports the Integrated Management of Childhood Illnesses (IMCI) Programme and the Care for Development Programme, which emphasise a holistic approach to child health and educates parents in child care. UNICEF supports training in neonatal resuscitation and essential neonatal care. Its purpose is to equip health workers with basic knowledge and simple, yet essential techniques to save lives. Undergraduate and graduate medical students are taught in accordance with new curricula updated with technical assistance from UNICEF. The curricula now include an IMCI and Care for Development course, and a 48-hour training module on HIV/AIDS with sessions on the prevention of parent-to-child transmission. As a result of UNICEF efforts, a National Programme on Prevention of Parent-To-Child Transmission of HIV was developed, relevant services were integrated into antenatal and perinatal care in the health care system in 2003 and 2004 and the Third State Programme 2006-2010 for HIV. UNICEF provides continuing support to ensure relevant services are incorporated in training courses for Family Group Practitioners working at the primary health care level, as well as obstetricians, gynecologists, neonatologists and pediatricians in the area of Voluntary Counseling and Testing, options for safe delivery, treatment and prophylaxis of HIV in infants and young children, as well as breastfeeding and complementary feeding.
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