PSI

Size of population	27,372,000
Gross national income per capita (2007)	US$ 730
HIV Prevalence	0.1 [<0.1 – 0.3]%
Estimated HIV cases	10,000
TB incidence	15,542
Estimated TB cases	21,680

HIV/AIDS

HIV/AIDS arrived relatively late in Uzbekistan, with only a few dozen cases reported before 1998.

Although it remains a relatively low-level epidemic, numbers have been rising, sharply driven by injecting drug use. In 2006 the authorities reported 2,205 new cases of HIV infection, which brought the total number of people living with HIV to 10,015. Injecting drug use accounts for nearly 80 percent of cases.

Most of those living with HIV are under 30 years of age, and over 75 percent of cases are concentrated in the region of Tashkent. Studies carried out in 2003–2004 showed HIV prevalence among injecting drug users in the region at 30 percent.

Around 10 percent of sex workers were also HIV-positive, mainly because of drug use. Officially, around 1 percent only of infections stem from sexual relations between men, but given the high level of stigma attached to same-sex relations this could well be an underestimate.

In 2006, 728,175 people were tested for HIV in Uzbekistan and 4,400 people living with HIV received medical care.

TUBERCULOSIS

TB notification rates in Uzbekistan have increased sharply in recent years. As in many parts of Eastern Europe and Central Asia, TB poses a bigger challenge to public health than HIV. TB incidence is running at around 113 cases per 100,000 population, and 15 percent of all new cases are multidrug-resistant. The rate jumps to 60 percent among those who have been treated previously.

In 2005 about 80 percent of new patients with smear-positive results were successfully treated, which was only slightly below the global benchmark.

PROJECT FOCUS

Under the USAID Dialogue on HIV and TB Project, prevention interventions target the following populations: injecting drug users, sex workers, and people living with HIV. The project is implemented in Tashkent City.

All data are taken from the October 2009 report from The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria titled Regional Overview: Eastern Europe and Central Asia.