LocationsModern CD4 testing technology is strengthening HIV services in Tajikistan by helping healthcare workers like Farzona Karimova deliver faster, more accurate results and ensuring people living with HIV receive timely monitoring, treatment, and care.
Farzona’s Story: How Modern Technology Is Helping Healthcare Workers Deliver Better HIV Services
August 6, 2026
During practical training on the new CD4 testing equipment, a laboratory specialist Farzona demonstrates the blood sample preparation process together with healthcare colleagues, the equipment engineer, and the UNDP team at the Dushanbe AIDS Centre.
Nigora Alimadzoda/ UNDP Tajikistan
For Farzona Karimova, the arrival of the new CD4 testing equipment marks an important change in her daily work at the Dushanbe AIDS Centre. The Centre is the first healthcare facility in Tajikistan equipped with this upgraded technology, which replaces the previous equipment and provides enhanced testing opportunities. While the Centre has long provided CD4 testing services, the new system will help improve the efficiency, reliability, and capacity of HIV-related laboratory services for people living with HIV.
As a laboratory worker, Farzona understands how important accurate and timely test results are for both patients and healthcare providers. She was among the first specialists to complete training on the operation of the new equipment, where she and her colleagues learned about every step required to ensure reliable results — from proper blood collection and sample preparation to conducting tests and maintaining the equipment.
Farzona Karimova, a laboratory specialist at the Dushanbe AIDS Centre, carefully prepares a blood sample.
Nigora Alimadzoda/ UNDP Tajikistan
“Working with new equipment is always exciting because it is a new experience for us,” she says. “It will make our work easier and help us provide more accurate and timely results – just within 30 minutes, we can already have the results ready for our patients”.
A total of 11 CyFlow™ Counter devices for CD4 cell counting were procured under UNDP’s “Strengthening HIV and Tuberculosis Prevention, Diagnosis, Treatment and Care Services in Tajikistan” project, funded by the Global Fund.
Farzona switches on the new CD4 testing equipment.
Nigora Alimadzoda/ UNDP Tajikistan
The new equipment will be gradually installed in 10 additional AIDS centres across the country. To ensure that healthcare specialists can confidently operate and maintain the new technology, practical training sessions will also be conducted in AIDS centres in Hisor, Vahdat, Bokhtar, Shahritus, Kulob, Khorugh, Panjakent, Istaravshan, and Khujand.
These learning sessions are led by a medical equipment engineer from Uzbekistan, who travelled to Tajikistan to work directly with laboratory specialists. Through practical demonstrations and hands-on sessions, he is helping healthcare workers become familiar with the new equipment, understand proper testing procedures, and ensure its effective use in supporting timely and accurate HIV-related services for patients across the country.
Islambek Qayumov, a medical equipment engineer, demonstrates the operation of the new CD4 testing system, helping laboratory specialists build the skills needed to use and maintain the technology effectively.
Nigora Alimadzoda/ UNDP Tajikistan
“The trainings started in Dushanbe. We introduced specialists to the theoretical aspects of working with the equipment,” Islambek Qayumov says. “We explained the importance of proper blood collection procedures before testing because the quality of the sample directly affects the accuracy of the results. If the blood sample is not prepared correctly, the equipment will not be able to provide reliable results.”
The CyFlow™ Counter devices will play an important role in strengthening HIV services across Tajikistan. Used at AIDS prevention and control centres, the equipment enables healthcare specialists to accurately determine the number of CD4 cells and their percentage in the blood of people living with HIV. These indicators are critical for assessing the condition of the immune system, supporting timely initiation of antiretroviral therapy (ART), and monitoring the effectiveness of treatment.
The new CD4 testing equipment analyzes a blood sample to determine key indicators of immune system health, supporting healthcare specialists in providing timely and accurate HIV monitoring and care.
Nigora Alimadzoda/ UNDP Tajikistan
The available stock of reagents, with an expiry date of April 2027, will allow specialists to conduct testing for approximately 8,000 patients. Once this stock is used, an additional buffer supply of reagents will support testing for another 8,000 patients. Considering that around 12,000 people are registered as living with HIV in Tajikistan, the available reagents will help ensure continued access to CD4 testing services.
Like 39 other healthcare specialists across Tajikistan, Farzona Karimova sees the new equipment as much more than a laboratory tool — it is an opportunity to make a real difference in people’s lives. Behind every test result is a person waiting for answers, support, and care. With faster and more reliable results, laboratory specialists can help doctors make informed decisions and ensure that people living with HIV receive the right monitoring and treatment at the right time.
The UNDP team and laboratory specialists review the support provided to strengthen HIV laboratory services, including new furniture, refrigerators, and essential equipment that help create improved working conditions for healthcare workers.
Nigora Alimadzoda/ UNDP Tajikistan
Before the installation of the new CD4 equipment, UNDP also supported the modernisation of the Republican AIDS Centre’s laboratory unit by providing new furniture and IT equipment, creating better working conditions for healthcare specialists and helping strengthen the overall capacity of HIV-related laboratory services.
By Nigora Alimadzoda, Communication Analyst
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