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Participants at the Methadone Maintenance
Therapy training in Mandalay.
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The objectives of this training are:
i) to improve the knowledge on Methadone
Maintenance Therapy (MMT) and increase coordination on MMT provision;
ii) to acknowledge on future plans and targets for
programme expansion;
iii) to assist the program by efficient staffs by
building capacity, and
iv) to introduce the
reporting system with standardize data for the future planning
implementation.
Ministry of Health started the delivery of Methadone
Maintenance Therapy for treatment of
injecting drug users since February 2006 and launched with 4 methadone
centers and now 10 methadone centers have been providing methadone: 2 centers
each in Yangon and Mandalay, one each in Lashio,
Muse, Tachileik (Shan State) and Myitkyina, Bamaw, Moegaung (Kachin State).
The Substance Abuse Prevention project of the Department
of Health with support from WHO and financial assistance from the 3 Diseases
Fund organized a three days training in Mandalay for medical doctors, nurses,
medical social workers and NGO staffs from the drug dispensing sites on 12 to
14 May 2010.
The agenda included the objectives and principle of
methadone substitution therapy with Myanmar drugs abuse history:
i) types of drug used in Myanmar and
changing trend of drug used types;
ii) brief motivation of interviewing patients;
iii) opiate dependent management;
iv) amphetamine drugs abuse management;
v) HIV prevention and harm reduction;
vi) methadone program standardized format for
monthly report;
vii) urine tests for drug users, and
viii) drugs interaction and
side effects of methadone.
During the training, the psychiatrists, clinicians, and
nurses from drug treatment hospitals as well as representatives from NGOs had
the opportunity to share their local experiences in implementing the programme, including the successes as well as the
challenges faced.
All trainees participated in discussion and added points
for programme progress. This training was facilitated
by psychiatrists and being valuable from academic point of view, medical
students from Mandalay
university of medicine attended the training too.
Since its inception, over 1200 patients have been enrolled
into the programme until May 2010 and around 70%
are still on treatment.
The first patient survey organized in December 2007 showed
the positive impact. The programme is having not
only the reduction of opioid misuse but also the
reduction of injection related HIV risk and positive impact in the quality of
life of patients.
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