The State of Higher Education in Occupational Health and Safety in Central Asian Countries.

A healthy workforce is vital for the sustainable social and economic development of any country. Assuring occupational health and safety (OHS) depends not only on the passing of quality working legislation and inspection of workplaces, but also on preparation of qualified specialists on OHS. Aimed at assessing of relevance of the content of training at Central Asian universities to the needs in prevention of risks of accidents and injuries and promotion of a preventive culture in the workplace, and finding out how they are compliant with the recommendations of the Mainstreaming occupational safety and health into the education (2010), we examined curricula of 20 medical and non-medical universities across Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.

Occupational Health in Mountainous Kyrgyzstan.

Background: In the period of transition from a centralized economy to the market economy, occupational health services in Kyrgyzstan have survived through dramatic, detrimental changes. It is common for occupational health regulations to be ignored and for basic occupational health services across many industrial enterprises and farms to be neglected.

Objective: The aim of this study was to demonstrate the present situation and challenges facing occupational health services in Kyrgyzstan.