Yerbolat Dosayev

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Yerbolat Askarbekovich Dosayev (b. 1970^[1]) served as the Finance Minister of Kazakhstan from 16 June 2003^[2] to 5 April 2004^[3]^[4], head of the Agency for Regulating Natural Monopolies,^[1] and later as the Minister of Health Care. He was fired on 20 September 2006 after 56 patients in an Uzbek hospital, all but one of which were children, were accidentally infected with HIV,^[5] and five of the children died.^[6] Another 16 children soon tested positive for HIV,^[7] and a sixth child died from AIDS.^[8] Dosayev's replacement, Anatoly Dernovoi, announced on 10 October that four more children were found to be infected with HIV and "eight cases in mothers have been detected. The infection locus has been contained, but preventive efforts will continue."^[9]

Valentina Skryabina, leader of Nadezhnaya Opora, a nongovernmental organization that combats AIDS infections in drug addicts, said, "Blood is an article of trade.... Hospitals are offered blood, and not always through the (official) blood center. People trade in blood like they do in human organs."^[6]

The Health Ministry raised the estimated number of children infected with HIV initially to 78^[10] and later to 82, with eight dead from various diseases.^[11]

1 Finance Ministership
2 Bird flu
3 Accidental HIV infections
- 3.1 July
- 3.2 May
4 HIV in Kazakhstan
5 References

[edit] Finance Ministership

Although Dosayev had previously headed the Agency for Regulating Natural Monopolies, Radio Free Europe took Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev's appointment of Dosayev to Finance Minister as a surprise, calling him and Adilbek Jaksybekov, who Nazarbayev appointed Minister of Trade and Industry, "newcomers." Kazakh Prime Minister Imangali Tasmagambetov's resignation triggered the dismissal of all government ministers as outlined in the Constitution of Kazakhstan.^[1]

Dosayev, addressing journalists and the Parliament of Kazakhstan on 19 March that AGIP KCO would pay the government USD $150 million for delaying oil production in the Kashagan oilfield. He said, "There will be two sums - 100 and 50 [million dollars]. One hundred is to arrive, and 50 will come a bit later." The Revenue Watch Institute characterized his answer to a question regarding further payments for delaying output as "evasive." Dosayev said, "You know, Vladimir Sergeyevich Shkolnik will tell you everything that was envisaged. I cannot speak about all the sums. The only thing I can now say is that 100 [million dollars] will arrive. We will negotiate the remainder later. The compensation calculated on the basis of the years [of postponed extraction]." He said that the government would "adjust the timeframe for payments and the like, if necessary," and the payment would either be transferred to the "National Fund [where surplus oil revenues are accumulated] or the budget to get the money. I think it will be the National Fund."^[12]

[edit] Bird flu

Dosayev announced on 20 March 2006 that tests had confirmed that a dead swan found in Mangghystau Province, on Kazakhstan's Caspian Sea coast, had bird flu. Several areas in northern Kazakhstan were quarantined in 2005 when the H5N1 bird flu strain was found.^[13] Thousands of domestic fowl were culled when bird was detected in Kazakhstan in August. Asylbek Kozhimuratov, the Kazakh agriculture minister, said that all domestic poultry in Mangghystau had been vaccinated. Fowl in Atyrau province, a location of suspected vulnerability to bird flu, were being vaccinated.^[14] The Kazakh Government started vaccinating an estimated 8 million fowl in February to limit the spread of bird flu.^[15]

[edit] Accidental HIV infections

[edit] July

In July of 2006 at least six Kazakh children were accidentally infected with HIV. According to Anatoly Belonog, Kazakhstan's chief epidemiologist, the "contamination" was caused by gross "violation[s] of sanitary norms at medical institutions." Belonog said the children were either infected by transfusions of HIV-positive blood or through the use of poorly sterilized medical instruments. Ualikhan Akhmetov, the head of Kazakhstan's Health Ministry's medical services quality control committee, said, "The HIV-positive children have been repeatedly admitted to hospitals in the city of Shymkent, where they received intramuscular and intravenous injections." According to RIA Novosti, Dosayev "pledged to provide the full range of antiretroviral treatment for the infected children." The Government of Kazakhstan's official statistics show 828 citizens tested positive for HIV in January to June 2006. In addition, 70, almost twice the number of cases for January to June 2005, new AIDS cases were found. The World Health Organization attributed increasing HIV infections to intravenous drug users sharing used needles. The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime estimates 5,440 Kazakh citizens are HIV-positive.^[16]

[edit] May

The patients were infected either by the use of unsterilized syringes, or by the transfusion of contaminated blood, in May 2006. At least four of the children have died from AIDS.^[5]

Bolat Jylkyshiev, the governor of the Southern Kazakhstan region, was also fired. Nurlan Abdirov, the deputy head of Kazakhstan's National Security Council, said Dosayev and Jylkyshiev were guilty of "serious" negligence.^[5]

Abdirov said President Nursultan Nazarbayev would personally oversee an investigation into the accident. Nazarbayev gave the government until December 2006 to draft a national program to fight against HIV and AIDS infections.^[5]

[edit] HIV in Kazakhstan

Alexander Zuyev, UNICEF's representative in Kazakhstan, warned on 28 November 2006 that two to three times as many people in Kazakhstan may be infected with HIV than the government's official estimate, that of 7,000 people. The official estimate of citizens infected with HIV rose by %20 from 2004 to 2005.^[17]