An aircraft carrying medical specialists from Poland, WHO experts and a tonne of medical equipment landed in Dushanbe on 7 June, marking the beginning of a large-scale COVID-19 response operation in Tajikistan, involving emergency medical teams (EMTs) and mobile laboratories coordinated by WHO/Europe.
“The Polish EMT’s COVID-19 experience acquired in virus-hit Italy, Poland and Kyrgyzstan is an asset for any country, and bringing this team to Tajikistan demonstrates how international cooperation can make a difference in protecting people from this disease,” said Dr Bahtygul Karriyeva, ad interim Head of the WHO Country Office in Tajikistan. “We are thankful to the government of Poland for making such a wealth of experience available to Tajikistan, in a spirit of solidarity.”
For the next 3 weeks, 23 experts from the Polish EMT – comprising anaesthesiologists, infectious disease specialists, nurses, paramedics and humanitarian aid experts – will work hand in hand with their Tajik peers to share best practice on the treatment of severe cases of COVID-19 and on preventing the spread of disease.
As part of the operation, WHO will mobilize medical and laboratory specialists from Germany, the Russian Federation and the united Kingdom, who will be deployed to Tajikistan during the coming weeks, upon request from the Tajik government.
“Emergency medical teams and rapid response mobile laboratories will support scaling up national COVID-19 response capacities, including in the most remote areas of the country,” said Dr Oleg Storozhenko, Partnerships Officer at WHO/Europe. “They will help to increase testing, improve contact tracing and isolation measures, support triage and referral systems, and optimize patient care.”
The EMTs and rapid response mobile laboratories will operate at health-care facilities across the entire country, including its more remote areas. The experts deployed by WHO/Europe to Tajikistan will work together with the WHO Country Office to support the Tajik government and international partners to establish a Public Health Emergency Operations Centre, enhance the containment strategy, and strengthen risk communication and community engagement.