Astana – Tuberculosis is a major health concern in Central Asia, with Kazakhstan alone recording 16,000 cases per year. This entirely curable disease is posing a severe threat to the millions of migrants in the region, particularly as Kazakhstan becomes a destination country due to its booming natural resources sector.

There are more than 10 million migrants in Central Asia, and their at-risk status was highlighted this week at a high-level meeting in the capital Astana, as part of Kazakhstan’s plan on control of the disease. It focused on labour migrants and their increased risk for tuberculosis and its drug-resistant strains.

Migrant workers face health hazards throughout the migration process. They often have limited access to health services, which leads to late detection of the disease, as well as to irregular drug intake and unfinished treatment courses. The later cause a low cure rate, relapses and increasing numbers of patients with multi-drug resistant tuberculosis.

“Without addressing the needs of migrants, we cannot end the tuberculosis epidemic,” Dr. Lucia Ditiu, Executive Director of the Stop TB Partnership told delegates at the Astana meeting.

Her words were supported by Dr. Jaime Calderon, IOM Regional Migration Health Adviser for South-Eastern Europe, Eastern Europe and Central Asia. He drew on IOM’s experiences in Asia on addressing migrants’ access to healthcare services. 

“Ensuring migrants’ well-being requires concerted efforts between countries involved in their migration process,” said Dr. Calderon. “We need to ensure continuity of care and uninterrupted treatment for mobile populations through all health networks. We also need to work with the non-health sectors like the immigration, border security, economic and development sector in making them understand the importance of healthy migrants for healthy economies.”

For more information please contact Dr. Jaime Calderon at +43 6605812153, Email:  jcalderon@iom.int