Multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) has emerged as a major threat to TB control, particularly in the former Soviet Union. To determine levels of drug resistance within a directly observed treatment strategy (DOTS) program supported by Médecins Sans Frontières in two regions in Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan, Central Asia, we conducted a cross-sectional survey of smear-positive TB patients in...

This paper focuses on inequality in living standards across oblasts and regions within Kazakhstan, the Kyrgyz Republic, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. Regional inequality is an important area of research and policy development. Inequality in income and consumption are logical outcomes in a market-based economic system. If inequality within countries exists because of barriers to compe...

it is estimated globally 3.2 million children were living with hiv in 2014, that mostly in sub-saharan africa. however, the majority of them infected to hiv from their mothers during pregnancy, during delivery or breastfeeding (1). antiretroviral therapy (art) use during and after pregnancy is essential for prevention of mother-to-child transmission (pmtct) of hiv (2).  in the absence of any in...

Given China’s geographic proximity, dynamic economy, and policy emphasis on promoting trade, it should be no surprise that its economic role in Central Asia has expanded dramatically since 1991. With continued economic growth and expansion of transportation links, China’s influence will continue to expand. Important questions remain, however, as to how far China’s influence in Central Asia migh...

INTRODUCTION The Russian Revolution of October 1917 resulted in a transfer of power from the autocratic Tsar Nicholas II to the Bolshevik Party and the subsequent establishment of the world's first socialist state. The victorious revolutionaries inherited from the Tsarist regime a politically, culturally, and linguistically complex situation, with over 100 million citizens speaking no less than...

Infection thresholds, widely used in disease epidemiology, may operate on host abundance and, if present, on vector abundance. For wildlife populations, host and vector abundances often vary greatly across years and consequently the threshold may be crossed regularly, both up- and downward. Moreover, vector and host abundances may be interdependent, which may affect the infection dynamics. Theo...

Central Asia is suddenly on the world map. Indeed, September 11 and the U.S. war against the Taliban and the al-Qaeda terror network in Afghanistan have drawn Central Asia from the periphery to near the center of that map. Policy makers forging strategies for Afghanistan have begun to realize that the entire vast region is plagued by increasingly weak states and regimes that are losing popular ...