The wages of Azerbaijan’s healthcare workers have been increased on a presidential decree. Under the decree, monthly salaries of those working in healthcare institutions funded from the state budget increased on average by 25% from September 1.*... читать

Paid medical services in the clinics included in the structure of Ministry of Health and budgetary medical institutions will be abolished starting on February 1, as Minister Ogtay Shiraliyev issued an order in this regard on Thursday. The adoption of the decision is due to the fact that the state funds allocated for healthcare increase every year, the logistics of medical centers strengthens and advanced forms of management are applied in the country, the Ministry of Health said.*... читать

The United States intends to capitalize on Azerbaijan’s experience in the prevention of child deaths, a US assemblywoman has said. “Although cutting-edge technologies are used in the US healthcare sector, it is an undeniable fact that the United States takes the 40th place in the world for medical services,” Senator Sheila Kuehl of California said in a meeting with Azerbaijani Minister of Health Ogtay Shiraliyev on Tuesday. Kuehl said that the United States was one of the western countries...... полностью

50 people were hospitalized after receiving poisoning at a dinner party in Baku on Tuesday night. According to preliminary estimates, it was caused by soft drinks served at the ceremony. 28 of the affected persons were children aged between four and 13. The condition of the kids, rushed to a hospital in the Sabunchu district, is currently normal, doctors say. 22 more people brought to the Baku Clinical Hospital have already been discharged. The poisoned persons said they had attended...... полностью

Scores of soldiers serving in an Air Force military unit outside Baku have been hospitalized after being infected with dysentery. The servicemen were infected with unboiled water they drank, the Defense Ministry said. It said the illness was caused by the spread of an infection on Saturday and that immediate counter-action was taken. The condition of the hospitalized soldiers is satisfactory and some of them have already been discharged, the Central Military Hospital said. The number of ...... полностью

The Azerbaijan Health Ministry may withdraw pain relief and febrifugal medicine referred to as “Analgin” from use soon. The substances it contains could presumably cause leukemia, head of the ministry’s Center for Analytical Expertise of Medicine, Abulfaz Abdullazada, told Radio Liberty. Commenting on the fact that such popular medicine as “Diphenylhydramine” pills and “Manganese” has already been withdrawn from open sale at pharmacies, he said that since the imports and sale of this med...... полностью

Large quantities of unsuitable medicine have been found in pharmacies in Baku. A check-up conducted in 92 pharmacies across the city revealed that 905 substandard drugs were put on sale, the Health Ministry said. It said similar inspections will be carried out in drugstores throughout the capital in the coming months, along with monitoring of pharmaceuticals.*... читать

A man died, while 60 people got poisoned in Azerbaijan after taking expired medicine over the past two months, according to the National Toxicological Center. Antibiotics, harmonics and anti-allergy preparations made up majority among the expired and low-quality medicines.*... читать

Azerbaijan’s top health official has come out against a recent UN report. “The data on Azerbaijan provided in the UN report on demographic situation worldwide are untrue,” Minister of Health Ogtay Shiraliyev told journalists on Friday. He said that the Ministry of Health would shortly refute the information mentioned in the document. The report issued by the UN Population Fund suggests that 73 out of 1,000 infants in Azerbaijan are still-born or die within a year after being born, compared ...... полностью

The World Customs Organization sees counterfeit medicine being spread in Europe and beyond as a problem as serious as terrorism, its secretary general Michel Danet says. The group plans to organize conferences and seminars in Malaysia, UAE, France and other countries dedicated to fighting the spread of such products, he told a news conference as a two-day international conference on related issues started in Baku on Thursday. Danet said research conducted in 27 countries has revealed that ov...... полностью

Azerbaijan’s health authorities have closed down a major medical center over violations. The Diamed diagnostics center’s license was rendered null and void over failure to comply with its requirements and operatıng in conditions posing a threat to public health, the Health Ministry told AssA-Irada. During the inspection, health officials also found that Diamed’s affiliates in the Nizami district of Baku and in the town of Mingachevir lacked the required licenses. The ministry said earl...... полностью

BP opened a new emergency medical service facility in Azerbaijan’s central Kurdamir district on Thursday. The facility will be operated as part of the Kurdamir Central Hospital using mixed resources of BP’s medical service provider and specially-trained local medical personnel, the company said. BP worked with its partners in the Azeri-Chirag-Gunashli (ACG), Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan main oil export and South Caucasus Pipeline gas projects to undertake the initiative. The total cost of the proje...... полностью

The Azerbaijani government is in talks on the construction of an insulin plant with foreign companies, including Denmark’s Nova Nordisk, a worldwide leader in the field. “The idea emerged due to the rising demand for insulin in the country and the need to address the issue on state level,” Economic Development Minister Heydar Babayev told a government meeting on Monday. The minister said the implementation of the project, estimated at some $12 million, will allow both to meet the country’s dem...... полностью

The number of HIV/AIDS cases in Azerbaijan is 1,007, including 54 foreign nationals, according to the State Committee on Family, Women and Children’s Issues. A total of 127 people of HIV-infected people have passed away. The Committee estimates that 191 people have been infected with the virus in the country in the past four months. 4.3 million people contracted the virus around the world in 2006, reports say. A total of 40 million persons are suffering from the disease, including 2.3 million...... полностью

Recent studies show that the vast majority of Azerbaijani youth have little idea of how HIV/AIDS is transmitted or how to protect themselves from the disease, which increases the risk of infection, International Medical Corps (IMC) has warned. “Meanwhile there are now more than 1,000 people living with HIV/AIDS in Azerbaijan, only a tiny fraction of the 39.5 million cases worldwide but more than twice as many as just three years ago,” the group said in a statement issued on Thursday. To addre...... полностью

The World Health Organization (WHO) elected its new director-general on Wednesday. Assistant Director-General, Dr Margaret Chan of China was nominated by the organization’s Executive Board. The nomination will be submitted to the World Health Assembly, which will meet for a one-day special session on Thursday, to appoint the next Director-General. Chan, 59, competed with four other candidates, with the main runner-up being Mexican Health Minister Julio Frenk, the WHO office in Baku said. ...... полностью

The signing of a protocol on cooperation between the education ministries of Azerbaijan and Turkey expected shortly has been postponed, officials said. The postponement is due to “certain reasons”, with no details elaborated. Minister Misir Mardanov told a news briefing after meeting Turkish National Minister of Education Huseyn Celik Wednesday that the deal could be signed during his counterpart’s next visit to the country. Celik has paid a two-day visit to Baku. The document envisio...... полностью

Tomris Turmen, the nominee for the post of the World Health Organization (WHO) director-general, is scheduled to visit Baku October 23-24, the health ministry told AssA-Irada. Turmen, who was nominated to the post by Turkey, plans to hold discussions concerning his candidacy in the Azeri capital. Nominees from 13 countries have applied for the position. The other candidates represent Kuwait, China, Mexico, Iceland, Myanmar, Syria, France, Mozambique, Japan, Ecuador, Finland and Spain. The ...... полностью

The fourth congress of CIS cancer experts and radiologists started in Baku on Thursday. Over 1,000 scholars and medics from 16 countries are attending the event to discuss new directions in diagnostics and treatment of malignant tumors, environmental factors causing the spread of cancer-related diseases and the advances of medicine in this area. In his opening remarks, the Commonwealth of Independent States executive secretary Vladimir Rushaylo said a concept outlining agreement among CI...... полностью

The Commonwealth of Independent States executive secretary Vladimir Rushaylo will arrive in Baku on Thursday. The goal of the visit is to attend the fourth congress of CIS cancer specialists and radiologists to last till October 1. Rushaylo is scheduled to meet Azeri officials on the sidelines of the event to discuss prospects for collaboration within the Commonwealth. The congress will be organized with the aid of the CIS Council on Cooperation in Healthcare and on the initiative of the ...... полностью

Baku, August 25, AssA-Irada There is currently no bird flu virus in Azerbaijan, according to a five-day monitoring held by the State Veterinary Service (SVS) jointly with the ministries of ecology and health. The blood and pathological samples taken from 36 wild birds as well as 1,918 domestic birds and those kept in breeding factories will be tested in Baku on Saturday, the SVS spokesman Yolchu Khanali said. The results of the tests will be known by September 1. The monitoring aiming...... полностью

The Ministry of Health has found irregularities in two medical institutions of Azerbaijan. Shortfalls were found at the Fitness and Beauty Center (Vital Clinic) LLC where accounting documents were not in compliance with statistical forms. It was ascertained that surgeries were carried out at the center though it was licensed to provide only out-patient examinations and treatment, health officials said. The activity of the Center was suspended following the inspection. The Ministry of Heal...... полностью

The Director-General of the World Health Organization, Dr Lee Jong-wook, has died. He had been in the Cantonal Hospital in Geneva since Saturday afternoon, where he underwent surgery to remove a blood clot on his brain. He remained in intensive care and was declared dead on Monday morning. The WHO official was 61 years old. Dr Lee, a national of the Republic of Korea, had been Director-General of the World Health Organization since July 21, 2003. He had worked for WHO for 23 years, at cou...... полностью

The Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic bordering on Turkey may face the threat of ‘bird flu’ virus due to the migration of birds, said director of the Center of Hygiene and Epidemiology Suleyman Jabbarov. The sanitary quarantine inspection of Nakhchivan is taking major steps to prevent the threat. The Inspection chairman Eldar Rzayev said the spread of dangerous diseases in Nakhchivan is prevented in customs checkpoints jointly with employees of the customs committee of the autonomous republic in ...... полностью

The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria has approved allocation of $9.5 million to Azerbaijan under a project on fighting tuberculosis. The organization considered 179 projects submitted this year and approved only five of them, including the only one from the European region presented by the Azerbaijan Ministry of Health. The Global Fund did not make any changes or additions to the project and included it into the first category, the Ministry told AssA-Irada. On account of th...... полностью

A major British company intends to build an insulin plant in Azerbaijan. Minister for Health Ali Insanov has dismissed the reports saying that insulin, which is mainly used for animals and is dangerous for human body, will be imported to the country. The goal of constructing the plant is to produce high quality insulin, he said. Insanov noted that a draft program on diabetics will be approved by the Milli Majlis (parliament) by the year-end. President Ilham Aliyev has agreed upon the program ...... полностью

The US Agency for International Development (USAID) has presented its 5-year reproductive health and family planning project on Friday. The ACQUIRE Reproductive Health/Family Planning project will be implemented by the EngenderHealth Organization jointly with ADRA, IntraHealth International and Meridian Group International organizations. US ambassador to Azerbaijan Reno Harnish told a seminar dedicated to the project that it targets improving reproductive health and family planning services. ...... полностью

An Iran-Azerbaijan Kidney Transplant Center will open in Baku. Azerbaijani Health Minister Ali Insanov said in a meeting with his Iranian counterpart Masud Pezeshkian on Tuesday that the agreement on the issue will be signed by the two countries’ ministries during President Ilham Aliyev’s visit to Iran scheduled for next year. The facility, to be located in one of medical institutions in Baku, will allow treating patients with serious conditions. The Iranian government plans to allocate $4...... полностью

There are 54,500 diabetics, including about 500 diabetes-affected people under 20, in Azerbaijan. Of them, 17,000 people are insulin-dependent diabetics, Minister for Public Health Ali Insanov has said. According to Insanov, there are 194 million diabetic patients all over the world and the figure is forecast to reach 330 million in 25 years. Death of diabetes comes third after that of cordial-vascular and oncologic diseases, he noted. Currently, about 200 endocrinologists are responsible fo...... полностью

The presentation ceremony of the “The best care for diabetes-affected children” project being implemented by the Heydar Aliyev Foundation jointly with the International Diabetes Federation was held at the Hyatt Regency Hotel of Baku on Tuesday. The event opened with showing a film featuring the late national leader Heydar Aliyev’s voice. The Foundation president, first lady Mehriban Aliyeva said the entity’s priority is to provide assistance to children. There are currently some 150,000 peop...... полностью