Methadone treatment to prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS

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Source: CCTV.com | 11-28-2006 17:42

Using infected needles is one of the main ways to transmit HIV. A new report indicates 37 percent of Chinese AIDS patients were infected using dirty needles to inject drugs. In Chongqing Municipality, the use of methadone to replace heroin, has become the main measure to prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS.

This is a methadone treatment clinic. Xiao Ping, who is 32 year old, has taken drugs for ten years and has never been able to quit.

Xiao Ping, an heroin addict, said

"I think about heroin everyday--just this, nothing else. I just think about how to earn money, get my heroin, and inject it into my body."

When the first clinic opened in Chongqing, Xiao Ping came to sign up. "It gives me hope, it really does. It's like someone giving me a hand, saving me."

Methadone is a synthetic narcotic, strictly administered by the state. Heroin addicts drink methadone to control their addictions for 24 or even 36 hours, with few side effects. Methadone has been found to be an effective way to treat heroin addiction.

Xiao Ping said after she drank it, she felt normal and wasn't uncomfortable.

An official from the Chongqing Municipal Disease Prevention and Control Center said drinking methadone mitigates the urge to use heroin. This decreases the number of dangerous intravenous drug injections by a heroin user, reducing the possibility that HIV will be transmitted through dirty, used needles.

China has established three-hundred-twenty methadone clinics so far, treating over 27-thousand people.

 

Editor:Ji Xuewen