Drugs and HIV: voices of hope in India

[Guest guest]

Drugs

and HIV: voices of hope in India

Cristina Albertin, UNODC Representative for South

Asia, recently visited the north-east of India, where she met determined

men and women dealing with drug use, HIV and AIDS.

25 September 2009 - Assam, Meghalaya, Angolans, Manipur and

Mizoram are the spellbinding names of five of the eight states in the north-east

of India, squeezed between

Bangladesh, Bhutan, China,

Myanmar and Nepal. These

states showcase the natural beauty of India's far-flung east.

World-known Assam

tea is produced here, bringing to mind images of lush green hills and paddy

fields, where in a peaceful scenery women pick tea leaves and families

cultivate rice.

But there are other, little known realities. Some

100,000 people live with HIV and AIDS in north-east India.

In early September, a team of Delhi-based United

Nations staff travelled to these parts, where the United Nations has teamed

up with the National AIDS Control Organisation to carry out an HIV and AIDS

prevention and care programme. Adult HIV and AIDS prevalence rates in Manipur

and Nagaland are 1.57 and 1.2 per cent respectively and well above the

national average of 0.34 per cent, according to the Department of AIDS

Control, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare of the Government of India.

Among the high-risk groups, the numbers are

alarming: in Manipur, 19.8 per cent of injecting drug users are HIV positive,

as are 10.4 per cent of men having sex with men. In Nagaland, 16.4 per cent

of female sex workers are living with HIV and AIDS. All of these numbers are

well above the national average. Although national HIV prevalence has been

decreasing since 2002, this has not translated into a similar decrease in the

north-east. Whereas interventions for injecting drug users have had an

impact, prevalence rates remain well above the national average of 6.9 per

cent, meaning that much more needs to be done.

During the joint mission, staff from the Joint

United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), the United

Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), the United Nations Development

Programme and UNODC heard the voices of drug users, both male and female, who

now receive support through the United Nations.

People opened their hearts and spoke of how they got

into drugs and of how they were dealing with it. A former heroin user was

still wondering how a friend got him hooked to heroin after only three days.

At the time of the visit, he was a client of the first oral substitution

treatment centre run by the Voluntary Health Association of Meghalaya. The

Association has attended to some 150 clients since 2006, to whom it provides

buprenorphine, a semi-synthetic opiate, to treat heroin addiction.

Although many of the clients talked openly about

repeated relapses and the frustration that came with them, they were

convinced that only treatment with buprenorphine helped them to lead a

normal, productive life that included employment, trustful family relations

and a life safe from HIV and hepatitis. They were relieved that they no

longer had to worry about how to get drugs. Ultimately, however, they also

wanted to free themselves of buprenorphine, an aim that according to the

Association's doctor providing medical and psychosocial assistance to the

recovering drug users, was feasible.

Women drug users, whose voices are seldom heard

because drug use is globally perceived as a man's issue, also shared their stories.

One woman spoke of how she turned to heroin and pharmaceuticals to deal with

the loss of her parents. She said it was difficult for her and other women in

similar circumstances to speak about their addiction or seek help. The

medical doctor at Meghalaya Manbha Foundation who attends to the women said

that women tend to feel more at ease in family health centres than in drop-in

centres.

The voices of these men and women in the north-east

of India

need to be heard by policymakers in the capital, by staff of joint United

Nations programmes and by other cooperating agencies. Only by keeping these

stories in mind will service providers be able to design and implement

large-scale programmes for those who are vulnerable to and need treatment for

drug use and HIV.

The work of the United Nations in India in support

of the National AIDS Control Organisation and the State AIDS Control Society

in the north-east is made possible thanks to the contribution of the

Australian Agency for International Development (AusAID), the Department for

International Development of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern

Ireland and the Swedish International Develpment ation Agency.

http://www.unodc.org/unodc/en/frontpage/2009/September/drugs-and-hiv_-voices-of-hope-in-india.html?newsletter=true