This summer, Vitaly Korolkov, 38, was homeless, HIV-positive, and a recovering heroin addict. He began methadone treatment the last time he got out of prison, three years ago, because, as he put it, “I just want to live, don’t know how much time I have left.”
For Nurlan Kenenov’s three-year-old daughter, the symptoms started with yellowing eyes. Then a fever set in. Fortunately, she got well on her own, but now his nephew is in the hospital, fighting hepatitis. “There were at least 20 children” there when they checked him in, Kenenov said. “Many more had been there before we arrived.”
A curious debate involving individual rights and the limits of state authority is unfolding in Kyrgyzstan. International donors and local policy makers are wrestling with the idea of whether Bishkek can compel people with tuberculosis to receive treatment – even if they don’t seek it.
