Former U.S. Ambassador Pamela Hyde Smith Speeches

Ambassador Pamela Hyde Smith's remarks at the Opening of the Tuberculosis Prison Hospital at Pruncul

April 18, 2003

 

Ambassador Pamela Hyde Smith's at the Opening of the Tuberculosis Prison Hospital at Pruncul

Prime Minister, Minister Dolghieru, other distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen, it is a great pleasure for me to participate this morning in the opening of this refurbished detention facility for tuberculosis-infected prisoners.

About one year ago, Lenka Koutnakova at the Association for Prevention of Torture brought the situation of the tuberculosis-infected prisoners incarcerated at Bender to my attention, for which I am very grateful. The prospect of releasing the infected prisoners posed a severe risk not only to the residents of Bender, but also for the Moldovan population on both banks of the Nistru River, and could have led to a tuberculosis epidemic. Yet it was evident that, under the circumstances imposed by the Transnistrian leaders, the prisoners could not remain where they were.

Moldovan officials, recognizing the need to conform to international standards and conventions, expressed an interest in upgrading a prison building at Pruncul, and transforming it into the detention center for tuberculosis infected prisoners. We gathered our team at the U.S. Embassy and tried to figure out how we could help.

With funding offered by the USAID, Counterpart took care of the refurbishment of the buildings. The U.S. military - represented by the Office of Defense Cooperation at the Embassy here in Chisinau and the headquarters of the U.S. military in Europe - procured furniture and supplies. The State Department funded the transportation of these supplies to Moldova.

This project has been implemented in remarkable collaboration - both within the U.S. Embassy community and with various Moldovan government institutions. I would like to thank the Ministry of Justice, the Department of Penitentiary Institutions, and the Commission on Humanitarian Assistance for their valuable support.

 This new facility will house 300 tuberculosis-infected prisoners. But there's much work yet to do in this area.

Tuberculosis continues to kill between two and three million people every year throughout the world. The most effective method for curing patients and preventing the development of sever forms of tuberculosis is the DOTS strategy.

We are pleased that Caritas, an NGO based in Luxembourg, has been providing drugs for DOTS treatment of tuberculosis-infected prisoners. We are also pleased with the plan of the Moldovan Ministry of Health to extend the DOTS strategy to all Moldovan counties as well as the penitentiary institutions. I would also like to note that USAID has proposed a new project that will strengthen the diagnosis and treatment of tuberculosis in Moldova.

Prison systems are potential incubators for tuberculosis. The Government of Moldova is to be commended for its progressive steps towards containing this serious problem. Correctly and consistently administered treatment can cure tuberculosis. Our combined efforts, demonstrated by the completion of this refurbished facility, will improve the conditions of tuberculosis-infected prisoners and should result in a substantially reduced threat to the general prison population and the public at large.

Again, thank you for the opportunity to participate in this important event. This project is a step forward towards improving the treatment regime for tuberculosis-infected prisoners in Moldova. I am pleased that the U.S. Government and the Government of Moldova were able to collaborate successfully on this project. Thank you.