The helm of affairs at the World Health Organization's (WHO) mission in Tajikistan, Santino Severoni, has an unenviable agenda in front of him. Tajikistan is reeling under a malnourished public health system, bruised after the five -year civil war, and has left a trail of devastation that is calling for urgent remedy.

Severoni, 42, a key contributor as a surgeon in Somalia, Sudan, Kenya, Burundi and Tanzania, and has been a witness to all the four civil wars that have ravaged these countries.

Tajikistan's health care facilities need a major revamp especially in areas like obstetric services, issues of infectious diseases, tuberculosis, malaria, HIV/AIDS and others. There have been extreme difficulties in access to quality healthcare in remote areas, and a dearth of necessary special equipment at health facilities. Infant and maternal mortality rates have always been high in Tajikistan, with nearly 70 percent of women not enabled with pre-natal care.