Capital: Ashgabat
Population: 5 million
Area: 488,100 sq. km
GNI (US $, billion): 5.4 (2003)
Gross National Income Per Capita: $1,120 (2003)
Public Health Expenditure as % of GDP: (2002)
Public: 3%
Private: 1.2%
Total: 4.3%
Annual Population Growth Rate: 1.3%
Total Fertility Rate: 2.7
Life Expectancy at Birth: 64
Infant Mortality Rate: 79 per 1,000
In Turkmenistan , ZdravPlus is playing a vital role in helping health care providers provide high quality services to the population with focuses on maternal and child health and laboratory trainings. ZdravPlus also offers technical support and brings regional and international experts to Turkmenistan in order to offer examples of best practices and support the Ministry of Health as they move forward with reforming their health care system to be more responsive to people's needs. Activities include the following:
KCH campaigns, focusing on prevention and proper treatment of common childhood conditions, such as diarrhea and acute respiratory infections (ARI), provide vital information to the population and are now being taken on by the health authorities as key to their role in promoting child health. These campaigns have been taking place in Turkmenistan since 2002 and involve nurses in educating caretakers of young children on recognizing the danger signs of diarrhea and ARIs, how to treat children at home, and when it is time to go see their family physician. The campaigns have proven to be popular with local health care officials and are now well enough established that ZdravPlus contributes only technical guidance and printed materials while local Houses of Health run the campaign themselves.
ZdravPlus trainings for lab workers in Turkmenistan focus mainly on those technicians working at the primary health care level. Over 600 lab workers have been trained in the areas of quality assurance, safety, infection prevention, and equipment use. ZdravPlus has been asked by the MOH to up-date the training and will focus this second-generation lab module on bringing further attention to practical lab skills and links between PHC doctors and laboratory physicians.
Under the first ZdravPlus Project, activities in Turkmenistan were restricted to a few key areas. However, the MOH appears poised to move forward on a number of issues including Health Finance and Safer Motherhood with international donors such as WHO, UNICEF, and UNFPA providing financial support and expertise. ZdravPlus actively participates in these efforts, providing targeted technical assistance to the MOH and other local partners at their request.
More information on ZdravPlus's activities in Turkmenistan can be found on the Road to Results and Recent Activity Highlights pages of this web-site and Technical Documents can be accessed through our online Public Library; for additional information contact us at office@zplus.kz.