Central Asia Task Force

2020 Annual Report

Due to the global COVID-19 pandemic, this Task Force has not been able to undertake specific activities during 2020. The Task Force leaders and many of its members were called to frontline duties caring for the sickest and most vulnerable patients. We express our sincere and heartfelt thanks to all our colleagues for their tireless and invaluable work during this crisis.

2019 Activities

• Hosted the 4th CAPH meeting to be in Almaty, Kazakhstan and Ulan Bator City, Mongolia, which will bring together leading experts in the field of pulmonary hypertension in our region.
• Organised a roundtable for discussion between the Ministry of Health and Insurance funds to include patients with pulmonary hypertension in the programme. The main objective of the round table was to help patients to receive expensive medicines by the state insurance programme in Kyrgyzstan.
• Conducted a second meeting of the Patients Association with Pulmonary Hypertension in Kyrgyzstan, where patients can share their experiences and problems with doctors and representatives of the Government.
• Held an awareness day for pulmonary hypertension in all Central Asian PVRI countries.
• Further engaged with colleagues from Turkmenistan and Tajikistan in the work of CAPH, by visiting schools and holding master classes on pulmonary hypertension treatment and awareness.

2018 Annual Report

The Central Asia PVRI Task Force (CAPH) brings together leading experts in the field of pulmonary hypertension from the countries of Central Asia, which include: Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Mongolia, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan.

Our main mission is the education of physicians and their local inhabitants, the research and implementation of new methods for the diagnosis and pulmonary hypertension treatment; the improvement in quality of care by reducing mortality and thereby enhancing quality of life for patients. 

PVRI Central Asian Task Force activity for 2016-2018

• We had active and continued contributions from pulmonary hypertension centres in Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan, with good teams and experience, important programmes and lessons. We have:

-        started a register for PH (pulmonary hypertension) patients

-        trained specialists.

-        provided equipment and ensured basic drugs are available.

-        improved the quality of medical care in PH.

• We started to organise and create a second PH expert centre in Osh city (southern region of the Kyrgyz Republic).
• Created the first Association of patients with pulmonary hypertension in Kyrgyzstan.
• Organised and conducted a Joint international symposium for pulmonary hypertension with the Saudi Association for Pulmonary Hypertension (SAPH) and CAPH on 28-29 September 2016, in Cholpon-Ata, Issyk-Kul, Kyrgyzstan.

-        Participants included founding PVRI member, Ghazwan Butrous, Stefano Ghio and other colleagues from the SAPH and CAPH Task Forces.

-        The symposium included a workshop and training for Doppler echocardiography and a masterclass for the right heart catheterisation with the support from SAPH and the PVRI. Participants included leading experts from Italy, Oman and Saudi Arabia.

-        The workshop featured a round table with the participation of experts from the PVRI and CAPH, where the action plan for 2016/17, including possible joint research projects and programmes, was discussed. 

• Developed and approved national guidelines (clinical protocol) for the management of pulmonary hypertension for Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan.
• We organised and promoted PH educational schools in different regions in Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan. 
• We have participated in an international project - we started a registry for chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension (with the support of Bayer). 
• In the summer of 2017, we conducted the final five-year high-altitude scientific expedition to the Aksai valley (3200-3800 m) in the Naryn area, Kyrgyzstan.

-        The study involved more than 300 people and a group of patients who participated in the HAPH registry study from 2012” We would like to note, and are very grateful for, the grant from the PVRI to support this research in 2015. All received data are subject to processing and analysis. 

• With great support from Professor Ghazwan Butrous, we created a website for the CAPH Task Force, which contains information about current activity, as well as important events and access to free lectures. 
• On 28-29 September 2017, the 10th Congress of the Euro-Asian Respiratory Society and VII Congress of The Kyrgyz Thoracic society was held in Bishkek.

-        Within the framework of the congress, we conducted a large online symposium on pulmonary hypertension with the participation of PH specialists such as Professor Konrad E. Bloch and Professor Silvia Ulrich, from Zurich University Hospital, Switzerland. 

Further information

• PVRI Annual Report 2020
• 2017 Task Force Annual Report
• 2016 Task Force Annual Report
• Fourth International Issyk-Kul Leh Symposium 2016: Final Report
• 2015 Task Force Annual Report