Kyrgyz President Sooronbay Jeenbekov led a delegation of public officials, including the Minister of Health, to the country’s National Tuberculosis (TB) Center on December 5, 2019. A proponent of the digitalization of public services, the President’s visit assessed the implementation of the management information system (MIS) in two entities, the National Reference Laboratory and the Multi-Drug Resistant TB Department of the National TB Center. The National TB Center is one of the Kyrygz Republic’s two public bodies in health, the other being the Emergency Service, that have implemented the MIS integrated with Tunduk, a unifying public information system aimed at connecting all public bodies and improving the quality of their services.
The implementation of the MIS at the National TB Center was made possible thanks to the continuous support of the U.S. Agency of International Development (USAID) to the Kyrgyz Republic in its fight against tuberculosis. More than 6,300 people were diagnosed with TB in the Kyrgyz Republic in 2018, with multidrug-resistant TB (MDR-TB) remaining one of the greatest challenges for country’s healthcare system. The Kyrgyz Republic is among the 30 highest-burden countries for MDR-TB with nearly 1,800 cases confirmed in the country in 2018.
MIS creates electronic medical records and speed up the diagnosis of tuberculosis, including by sputum collection and rapid molecular tests. USAID also helped to implement a new system of transportation of sputum samples from all regions to the National Reference Laboratory. These measures helped decrease diagnosis time, decrease patient costs, and reduce the risk of infection to others.
President Jeenbekov is the first head of state to visit the National TB Center. This high-profile visit underscores the serious threat TB poses. Tuberculosis is the most lethal infectious disease in the world, taking the lives of an estimated 1.5 million people each year.