US aiding prevention of grave diseases in Azerbaijan

The United States is establishing special laboratory networks in Azerbaijan to prevent the spread of biological diseases.

Such facilities have already been commissioned in the central Saatly and Sabirabad districts, and talks are now underway to set up one in the northern Guba district, the State Veterinary Service official said.

“These laboratories will serve to discover, track down and prevent 44 hazardous diseases, including bird flu, tuberculosis and foot-and-mouth disease,” Eldaniz Zeynalov said.

Representatives of the US Department of Defense, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Ukraine are currently meeting in Baku to seek ways of jointly warding off biological threats in the region.

The U.S. has voiced concern over the spread of such perilous diseases as bird flu and TB in Azerbaijan in the past two years.

The World Health Organization said in its new report that the highest rate of medicine-resistant TB has been registered in Baku. 22.3% of all persons suffering from the disease in the country reside in the capital, it said.*