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AFEW and KNCV Tuberculosis Foundation Form Strategic Partnership in Eastern Europe and Central Asia to fight HIV/AIDS and TB
Amsterdam/The Hague/Moscow, 15 May 2006
AIDS Foundation East-West (AFEW) and KNCV Tuberculosis Foundation of the Netherlands have signed an agreement to partner strategically in response to the rapidly growing HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis (TB) epidemics in Eastern Europe and Central Asia (EECA).
EECA have been struggling with overlapping epidemics of HIV/AIDS, TB, sexually transmitted infections, and drug use. A difficult transition period after the collapse of the Soviet Union has led to declines in living standards and in the quality of public health services. Social and economic turmoil have helped create conditions to fuel these epidemics. In addition, newer multi-drug resistant forms of TB, which are more difficult and expensive to treat, began to spread rapidly in the mid-1990s.
‘This is a big step forward for both our organisations and for the countries of Eastern Europe and Central Asia. We are looking at a situation where the independent epidemics of HIV and TB are starting to merge and fuel each other. But there is still time to act and it is important that the leading Dutch AIDS and TB organisations team up to face this crisis,’ said AFEW’s Executive Director Joost van der Meer.
Poverty, crowded living conditions, high levels of injecting drug use, unhealthy prison conditions and a vertically organised healthcare system with little coordination between TB and HIV/AIDS services in the region have only hastened the further spread of HIV/AIDS and TB.
AFEW and KNCV Tuberculosis Foundation have a history of working together that started in 2003, when AFEW joined a programme on ‘Tuberculosis control and prison reform’ in Kazakhstan by KNCV Tuberculosis Foundation and Penal Reform International. The cooperation built the capacity of local prison staff and healthcare workers and resulted in establishing pilot prevention programmes in prisons. ‘KNCV Tuberculosis Foundation is happy to build upon our partnership with AFEW that began in Central Asia in 2003. TB is a growing challenge in Eastern Europe and Central Asia and it cannot be tackled without also addressing HIV/AIDS,’ stated KNCV Tuberculosis Foundation Executive Director Prof. Dr. Martien Borgdorff.
The strategic partnership will allow both organisations to make a larger impact, aiming at building up its existing programmes and rolling out activities to other countries in the region. The added value of the partnership will help assure quality, TB/HIV coordination and increased effectiveness of their innovative programmes to control TB, prevent HIV and provide treatment, care and support for people with HIV/AIDS and/or TB.
AFEW, established in 2001, has built a sound track record in EECA by providing HIV prevention, treatment, care and support services. An important part of its activities are geared towards building the capacity of governmental and non-governmental partners through intensive training and technical assistance programmes.
KNCV Tuberculosis Foundation, founded in 1903, has a long-standing reputation in tuberculosis control in the Netherlands and, since the 1980s, in the world. Internationally, KNCV Tuberculosis Foundation is a major technical agency and founding member of the STOP TB Partnership. Its core activities are providing technical assistance, policy development, operational and epidemiological research and capacity building.
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