DUSHANBE, May 21, 2010, Asia-Plus  -- Only Ministry of Health of the country is authorized to disseminate official and reliable information about poliomyelitis situation in Tajikistan, Deputy Health Minister and Chief Sanitary Doctor of the Republic Azam Mirzoev told Asia-Plus while commenting upon contradictory information about the number of people infected with this virus in the republic.

However, he did not deny information distributed earlier on May 19 by the World Health Organization (WHO) according to which 126 out of 431 people were tested positive. “WHO sends all samples to Moscow reference laboratory,” he said. “Updated data which WHO receives from the lab should be provided to Health Ministry since only this ministry is authorized to make such information public.”

Chief Tajik Sanitary Doctor called the fact of transfer of data with the number of infected people by WHO to the media bypassing Health Ministry to be incorrect. “Health Ministry should be the first structure to get this information and distribute it further to the media after thorough study and analysis,” he said. “It seems that everyone who will take the trouble can become a reliable database on poliomyelitis today.”  

He stressed that the US Embassy is not authorized to provide any statistical data concerning poliomyelitis situation in Tajikistan.