The most infected region is Osh, where there are 208 patients. Last year, Osh experienced an outbreak of HIV infection in the region, which grew dozens of times in comparison to the previous year. The capital, Bishkek, hosts 63 HIV victims. Most of the carriers, 304 people, are drug addicts.

However, specialists of the “AIDS” Osh office suppose that the real number of the carriers in Osh region is no less than 2000, and that all of them are injecting drug users. As the chief doctor of the regional center Tugelbay Mamaev informed, they are young and middle aged, and most of them do not have families or are divorced, jobless and former convicts. The general manager of the AIDS center, Boris Shapiro, thinks the true amount of infected throughout the country exceeds 7000. In Kyrgyzstan, there are up to 100,000 drug addicts.

Kyrgyz experts consider HIV and AIDS to be a threat to national security. They note that if the furious pace of the virus infection in the republic is not restrained, Kyrgyzstan may run into a demographic catastrophe in about twenty years.

Samat, 23, found out that he was ill three months ago, after he had passed an AIDS test. The boy is an injection drug user. He never paid attention to the fact that the syringes he used had ‘served’ someone else, nor did he care about their disinfection. “I have only five or six years to live. It’s really painful to know that. I feel like a convict sentenced to death. But I want to believe that before I die, doctors will find the way to cure AIDS,” says Samat, trying to hide his tears.

“The outbreak of the HIV epidemic in southern Kyrgyzstan was caused by the increasing number of drug addicts,” according to the deputy director of the “AIDS” center, Aynagul Osmonova. “As is well-known, the Osh region is located on the drug traffic route from Afghanistan to Russia and Europe. About ten percent of narcotics that are transited stay in Osh, where it is quite accessible and cheap,” she says. Getting drugs in Osh city is not a problem. It is easy to buy dose of heroin for 20-25 soms ($0,6 – 0,7) everywhere. As the local police department informs, policemen have discovered over 30 drug “dens” around the city.

Local experts predict a spread of the HIV epidemic from the south of the country to Bishkek, and then to all regions of the Kyrgyzstan, since the virus usually penetrates from drug users into the general population.

The Osh administration is implementing the state program of AIDS prevention in order to restrain the epidemic. It opened six aid posts around the region, where drug addicts can change used syringes to new ones free of charge. Everywhere in the south, there are medical centers providing free consultations and all kinds of contraceptives. Local TV shows a series of programs on the danger of HIV and AIDS. Nevertheless, as the deputy director of the “AIDS” center Aynagul Osmonova asserts, state structures experience serious financial problems in dealing with the problem. The situation, however, could have been even worse if the preventive measures were not supported by NGOs and international organizations such as UNFPA, UNDP, USAID, Population Services International, the Soros Foundation in Kyrgyzstan, and others. “Lately, we observe that an increasing number of cases of HIV infection tend to come from sexual contacts,” says Osmonova. In Osh, experts note a wave of prostitution. Every third woman addicted to drugs provides sexual services, periodically or regularly, to buy new doses. Many of them make their living this way. According to current assessments, 90 percent of commercial sexual contacts do not use contraceptives.

While AIDS prevention programs on the state and international levels exist, responsible officials complain of a lack of money and the insufficiency of educational work. Specialists and volunteers, when giving lectures in the southern districts of the country, have to deal with the specific mentality formed by religious traditions and superstitions. They are unable to talk openly with the population since southerners tend to shun “shameful” subjects.

The Osh region needs more attention of the government and the whole society. Preventive measures, education, publicity, and qualified medical services require significant assignments, and the support of international organizations. Otherwise, the possible consequences of the mortal epidemic may come at a much higher price for Kyrgyzstan.