Tashkent, Uzbekistan (UzDaily.com) -- Today, 15 November 2021, the WHO together with the World Diabetes Foundation convened a high-level event on "Improving access for the prevention and control of NCD in Primary Care in Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan," which brought together representatives of Ministries of Health of Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan, as well as key stakeholders at country level.

The World Health Organization (WHO) Regional Office for Europe is initiating a three-year project entitled "Improving access for preventing and controlling noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) in Primary Care" to support Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan. The project, co-funded by the World Diabetes Foundation, has a budget of over USD 1 million and will contribute to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) on reducing premature mortality from NCDs by a third by 2030 (SDG 3.4) and on achieving universal health coverage (SDG 3.8.).

Diabetes is one of the four major types of noncommunicable diseases. According to the International Diabetes Federation, more than 425 million people suffer from this disease globally, most of them are patients with type 2 diabetes. In Uzbekistan, the number of patients with diabetes is more than 245 thousand, of which more than 2.3 thousand children, 879 adolescents.

The project aims to contribute in pursuing UHC through improving control and prevention of complications for NCDs clinical practice with focus on primary care, to improve the self-management of NCDs and chronic conditions by providing therapeutic education to patients and expanding the competences of nurses and other relevant providers, as well as to strengthen governance by implementing evidence-based policies and a system-approach to clinical practice and quality improvements. 

Some of the specific deliverables within the project's timeline include strengthening capacity of the primary health care teams, training of nurses in diabetes foot care and prevention, increasing in enrollment of diabetes patients, with patients receiving training on self-care, regular foot examinations and diabetic retinopathy screening, and achieving better control of their diabetes and blood pressure.