DUSHANBE, April 1, Asia-Plus — The first in Tajikistan polymerase chain reaction (PCR) lab for detection and diagnosis of HIV/AIDS has opened in Dushanbe, Murodali Rouziyev, director of the Republican AIDS Center, said in an interview with Asia-Plus.
According to him, test-systems for conducting more than 200 tests were delivered in Tajikistan for the PCR lab at the end of last week.
Rouziyev said that PCR allows quickly detecting viral diseases, including immunodeficiency in human blood, and speeding up gene discovery. “The new equipment will allow detecting immunodeficiency virus in blood of newborn baby straight after birth,” said the AIDS Center director. “The PCR lab will make our work with babies born to HIV-infected mothers easier.” “Earlier, we tested babies for HIV only in 1.5-2 years after birth because babies develop their own antibodies by the time they are 15-18 months,” Rouziyev said.
He added that labs for detecting lymphocytes in blood of HIV sufferers are expected to open in Khorog and Qurghon Teppa in April. Dushanbe and Khujand have such laboratories.
We will recall that according to official data, 1,049 HIV sufferers have to date been registered in Tajikistan. As of February 2008, 85 HIV-infected persons have already died.
The majority of persons living with HIV in Tajikistan are men aged 20 to 39. Injecting drug users constitute some 60 percent of HIV sufferers in the country. 21 percent of HIV sufferers in Tajikistan have contracted HIV through sexual intercourse, and the cause of the infection is unknown in 19 percent of cases. Mother-to-child transmission rates are less than 1%.
