Category: 2020

ArmInfo. Starting Monday in the parliament of Armenia   the temperature of all employees and visitors will be measured. David Karapetyan, Advisor to the Chairman of the  National Assembly, announced this on his Facebook page.

Karapetyan stated that antibacterial hand sanitizers (alcogel) were  placed on all floors of the parliament. He asked everyone to be  conscious and respect the rules of maintaining health and hygiene.

It should be noted that on March 1, the first case of a new type of  Coronavirus was detected in Armenia.  The patient, a 29-year-old man,  arrived by plane from Tehran to Yerevan on February 28. At the time  of the flight, the epidemiologist found no symptoms of Coronavirus  among the passengers. The patient already from the house turned to  the doctors, and was taken to the hospital in an ambulance. Tests  confirmed Coronavirus. Meanwhile, the condition of the newcomer is  assessed as good, and already the day before he had no temperature.   We add that the service – 8003 is available around the  clock in the Ministry of Healthcare of the Republic of Armenia. For  questions of the epidemiological situation, you can contact the  National Center for Disease Control and Prevention by calling 010 55  06 01, 010 55 03 06, 010 55 03 07.  It should be noted that, unlike  the National Assembly of the Republic of Armenia, it is very  difficult to find alcogel in the pharmacies of Armenia.

ArmInfo. On March 2, the NA Standing Committee on Health Care and Social Affairs of the Republic of Armenia held discussions on the merger of the “Republican Center  for AIDS Prevention” and the “NORK Infection Clinical Hospital”.

To recall, the corresponding government decision was made on January  30.

Meanwhile, the Center is categorically against the merger, noting  that this decision poses a threat to national security, nullifying  the many years of efforts to combat HIV / AIDS.

As noted in her speech General Secretary of the RA Ministry of  Healthcare Lusine Kocharyan, as a result of the planned merger, HIV  patients will only benefit. She drew attention to the fact that their  inpatient treatment of opportunistic infections was always carried  out in Mink.

In addition, the hospital plans to improve laboratory resources, and  earlier design and calculation work was carried out in order to  repair and re-equip this medical facility. Kocharyan also noted that  the Center is equipped with modern laboratory equipment, which after  the merger will be able to access patients with diseases such as, for  example, hepatitis C.

At the same time, she assured that the merger of the Center and the  hospital would not affect the property and employees of these  institutions. According to her, it is about introducing a centralized  management system, and it will take approximately 5 months to  complete the merger process itself. Kocharyan noted that the  corresponding draft decision on the merger of the Center and the  hospital was positively evaluated by all donor organizations.  Meanwhile, as was noted, the Center takes a categorical position on  this issue, and does not comply with the written instructions of the  ministry.

Kocharyan also dispelled fears of patients with HIV-positive status,  noting that they would not receive appropriate treatment at local  clinics after the merger. As Anahit Harutyunyan, head of the  “Positive People Armenian Network” NGO, noted earlier, this prospect  was worried about this prospect because of fears of a lack of  tolerance towards them and their relatives in primary care  facilities. Meanwhile, as it turned out, a number of Center employees  in protest against the merger with Mink wrote letters of resignation.  As the former head of the epidemiological surveillance department of  the Center Arshak Papoyan stated, there are a number of obvious  inaccuracies in substantiating the government decision. So, he drew  attention to the fact that every year in the Center about 700-800  people receive preventive treatment to prevent the development of  opportunistic infections. As regards the fact that HIV / AIDS  patients seek treatment at Nork, in fact, as Papoyan noted, in  addition to Nork, the treatment is provided, in particular, by the  Hematology Center and the National Oncology Center. Meanwhile, this  circumstance did not lead to their merger with the AIDS Prevention  Center.

The expert also drew attention to the fact that 400-500 new cases of  HIV are detected annually in Armenia, and therefore it would be more  advisable not to weaken the Center through a merger, but rather to  increase its capacity.  Arshak Asmaryan, the former head of the  Center’s medical care and services department, has a similar opinion,  noting that to strengthen preventive measures it would be enough to  go not by merging, but to introduce an HIV test in all medical  institutions as a routine laboratory test method.  To recall, earlier  Minister of Healthcare Arsen Torosyan commented on the decision to  merge the Center and the Nork hospital, promising that this decision  would not entail a staff reduction. According to him, scientific  achievements and modern international approaches in the fight against  AIDS indicate that this issue should be integrated into the national  health system. As was noted, the need for separate institutions  dealing with the problem of AIDS existed about 40 years ago, when the  acquired immunodeficiency syndrome was only detected. 

BAKU, Azerbaijan, March 2

Trend:

OSCE Minsk Group should produce more in terms of a settlement for the resolution of Nagorno-Karabakh issue, Turkish Foreign Minister Movlut Cavusoglu tweeted, Trend reports.

“This solution should be in full respect of sovereignty, territorial integrity and internationally recognized borders of Azerbaijan,” the minister wrote.

The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. As a result of the ensuing war, Armenian armed forces occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts.

The 1994 ceasefire agreement was followed by peace negotiations. Armenia has not yet implemented four UN Security Council resolutions on withdrawal of its armed forces from Nagorno Karabakh and the surrounding districts.