First Stage of the Gorbachev Against TB and AIDS Program Completed

Last week saw the completion of the first stage of works performed under the long-term program Gorbachev Against TB and AIDS.

Under the Project Support of UIN’s (Directorate for Execution of Sentences) Correctional Facilities in Combating TB and AIDS in the Moscow Region, a special Working Team was set up and, in accordance with the Memorandum of Cooperation between the Gorbachev Foundation and the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation, a trilateral agreement was signed between the Foundation, Correctional Facility IZ-50/9 and a contracting construction company to make an overhaul with elements of rebuilding in the medical section of the Ministry of Justice GUIN’s (Main Directorate for Execution of Sentences) Moscow Region SIZO (Investigation-Isolation Prison or Pre-trial Detention Center) correctional facility.

The works were performed with high standards of quality, in compliance with requirements specified in the relevant building codes and standards of the Russian Federation and following the recommendations made by the UIN’s Chief Sanitary Doctor for the Moscow Region.

The medical section will house TB and AIDS patients held under investigation in the detention center. To improve their living conditions and the quality of medical services rendered to them, the overhaul of three wards/hospital rooms was performed, a medical treatment room and an X-ray room were furnished, and medical furniture was acquired.

Mr. S.B. Selivanov, RF Ministry of Justice's GUIN Chief Sanitary Doctor; Mr. Yu.V. Omeltchenko, Deputy Head of Moscow Region UIN; Mr. V.I. Yakoubovyak, TB Coordinator representing the WHO in Russia; Mr. B.V. Ionov, Executive Director of the Gorbachev Foundation; and Mr. S.R. Kozlov, Deputy Head of the Gorbachev Foundation’s Center to Assist Humanitarian and Charity Programs were among those who attended the ceremony of the formal handover of the facility to the Moscow Region SIZO, held on June 2, 2004. The Gorbachev Foundation’s efforts were honored with a Letter of Gratitude from the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation.

The medical section’s facilities, in accordance with the appropriate agreements signed by the Gorbachev Foundation with the Phthisiopulmanology Scientific Research Institute (Headed by Academician Mikhail I. Perelman) as well as with the Russian Federal AIDS Centre (Headed by Vadim V. Pokrovsky), will also be used for regular medical examinations of patients by highly qualified doctors and experts, who will also give lectures and advanced training seminars for doctors, employed by the Moscow Region GUIN.