In March 2020, LHSS began working in Tajikistan as part of the national emergency response to COVID-19. In partnership with the Ministry of Health and Social Protection of the Population (MOHSPP), LHSS helped to mobilize national stakeholders, leveraging existing platforms to develop and rapidly implement nationally approved plans for preventing, detecting, and responding to the COVID-19 epidemic. LHSS concentrated efforts in 23 districts of Sughd and Khatlon regions of Tajikistan, focusing on infection prevention control, medical waste management, and laboratory strengthening, as determined with MOHSPP and national partners.

As of October 2023, LHSS is partnering with the MOHSPP and partners to advance Tajikistan’s global health security agenda. Using a One Health approach, experts in human health, animal health, and the environment collaborate to address emerging pandemic threats, helping Tajikistan prevent pandemic threats before they “spill over” into human populations and an outbreak occurs.

Approach

Working in support of Tajikistan’s global health agenda, LHSS assistance aims to -

• Strengthen the national laboratory system and facilitate innovative and sustainable solutions for medical waste management to counter emissions.
• Strengthen primary health care laboratory technicians' and medical staff capacity skills to implement multisectoral and whole-of-government pandemic preparedness, prevention, detection, and response.

Progress Highlights

• As of 15 December 2023, 99% of the target population was vaccinated against COVID-19 and 91.7 % received the COVID-19 booster in 15 LHSS-supported districts of Bokhtar region. In 8 LHSS-supported districts of Sughd region, 99% were vaccinated against COVID-19 and 87% received a booster.
• LHSS partnered with the MOHSPP in the Sughd region to hold a month-long “Protect Yourself from the Coronavirus!” contest in eight districts. The contest motivated 344 health care workers to engage their communities to increase COVID-19 vaccination coverage and leveraged health care workers as a trusted source of information about vaccines. Following the contest, the COVID-19 vaccination rate in the region rebounded by 30 percent.

• LHSS supported the implementation of the supply chain management program in 23 project target districts in the Bokhtar zone of the Khatlon and Sughd regions. The main goal was to transition from paper-based to electronic (computer) records for timely forecasting.

• The MOHSPP approved updated standard operating procedures (SOPs) for storage, transportation, and administration of vaccines, prepared by LHSS and local counterparts, to improve cold chain compliance. As follow-up, LHSS and the Republican Center for Immunoprophylaxis inventoried the number of WHO-compliant refrigerators in both districts and found a 24-percent increase in the number of refrigerators that can safely store vaccines across the Bokhtar zone and Sughd region.