The GDD Regional Center in the Central Asia Region (CAR), based in Almaty, Kazakhstan, is one of ten established around the world to help countries identify and respond to emerging diseases. The GDD Regional Center in Kazakhstan collaborates with key in-country partners in the Kyrgyz Republic making it truly a regional platform in scope. These regional centers work with WHO and MOH o strengthen core infrastructure requirements (e.g., laboratory detection, clinical surveillance, outbreak investigation and control) needed to comply with the International Health Regulations (IHR). GDD Kyrgyzstan includes the four core component programs described below. The following programs are implemented in Kyrgyzstan by GDD:
International Emerging Infections Program (IEIP)
CDC IEIP staff work with key stakeholders to improve detection, control, and prevention of emerging infectious diseases. Strategies include strengthening epidemiology, surveillance, laboratory capability, training, and evidence-based public health research and practice. IEIP’s activities have led to improved understanding of the causes and burden of varying diseases such as hepatitis, influenza and Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever in the Kyrgyz Republic and other Central Asia countries, and the data have been used to inform public health policy decisions, evaluate new tools for improving disease diagnosis and treatment, and strengthen epidemiologic and laboratory capacity.
Field Epidemiology and Laboratory Training Program (FELTP)
The CDC Division of Public Health Systems and Workforce Development (DPHSWD) has been working in Central Asia since 2003 to build workforce capacity and strengthen public health systems. DPHSWD supports the participating countries’ Ministries of Health (MoH) in training public health officers through a two-year Regional Field Epidemiology and Laboratory Training Program (FELTP), located in Almaty, Kazakhstan, that focuses on applied epidemiology, disease surveillance, outbreak response, and program evaluation. While enrolled, residents continue working in their respective country's health system and are well-positioned to serve as first responders to outbreaks, as well as leaders and mentors for future in-country specialists in field epidemiology.
Global Influenza
Knowledge of the epidemiology of influenza in Central Asia and preparation for a possible pandemic has increased substantially because of CDC’s collaborative work in the Kyrgyz Republic since 2008. Two sentinel surveillance sites for influenza-like illness (ILI) and severe acute respiratory illness (SARI) were established in Kyrgyzstan along with a national laboratory and a laboratory in each site.