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Methadone reduces HIV transmission
A patient takes a dose of methodone.
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Kyrgyzstan has taken the regional lead in using methadone, a synthetic drug, as a substitute for heroin to help stop the spread of HIV/AIDS. Due to the central Asian republic’s economic difficulties, and its proximity to the drug producing state of Afghanistan, heroin use is high among the adult population, currently at two percent.
Addicts share needles, carrying a massive risk of spreading AIDS. Methadone is a good substitute because it curbs the craving and is swallowed in liquid form, so the risk of infection is removed. With Global Fund support, methadone treatment is available at eight centers around the country. In 2008, Kyrgyzstan is setting up a pilot program in prisons, the only country in the region to do so. The young are particularly at risk and Kyrgyzstan is a youthful country, one third of the population is under 15.
In three years, the methadone program has grown from a pilot project to provide nearly 500 injecting drug users (IDUs) with methadone substitution therapy. The project aims to more than double that number by the end of 2009, in order to offer methadone substitution treatment to 80 percent of IDUs. For an addict, the incentive of going to a clinic to receive their daily dose of methadone makes it more likely that those who are also HIV positive will adhere to the antiretroviral therapy also offered alongside the program.
| Ainura Esenamanova is a coordinator at the Kyrgyzstan national methadone substitution therapy program. She explains why methadone is a good solution in the fight against AIDS. |
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| Ainura Esenamanova describes the pilot prisons program |
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