The long winding road of opioid substitution therapy implementation in South-East Asia: challenges to scale up
In South-East Asia Region (SEAR) there were an estimated 400, 000 - 500,000 people who inject drugs (PWID). HIV prevalence among PWID was commonly 20% and higher in Indonesia, Thailand, Myanmar, and some regions of India. Opioid substitution therapy (OST) has been implemented as an important HIV pre...
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| Format: | Journal Article |
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PAGEPress
2014
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| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/36598 |
| _version_ | 1848754815226609664 |
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| author | Reid, G. Higgs, Peter Sharma, M. |
| author_facet | Reid, G. Higgs, Peter Sharma, M. |
| author_sort | Reid, G. |
| building | Curtin Institutional Repository |
| collection | Online Access |
| description | In South-East Asia Region (SEAR) there were an estimated 400, 000 - 500,000 people who inject drugs (PWID). HIV prevalence among PWID was commonly 20% and higher in Indonesia, Thailand, Myanmar, and some regions of India. Opioid substitution therapy (OST) has been implemented as an important HIV prevention intervention in the Region. Various key challenges and barriers to scale up of OST exist: pervasive stigma and discrimination towards PWID; crimilization of drug use overshadowing a public health response; lack of political will and national commitment; low financial investment; focus towards traditional treatment model of detoxification and rehabilitation; low dose of OST; and poor monitoring and evaluation of programmes.Local evidence has highlighted that OST can be successful within the Asian context. Such evidence should be utilized more widely to advocate for policy and increased political commitment to ensure OST reaches a substantial greater number of drug users than currently exists. |
| first_indexed | 2025-11-14T08:46:24Z |
| format | Journal Article |
| id | curtin-20.500.11937-36598 |
| institution | Curtin University Malaysia |
| institution_category | Local University |
| last_indexed | 2025-11-14T08:46:24Z |
| publishDate | 2014 |
| publisher | PAGEPress |
| recordtype | eprints |
| repository_type | Digital Repository |
| spelling | curtin-20.500.11937-365982017-09-13T15:29:12Z The long winding road of opioid substitution therapy implementation in South-East Asia: challenges to scale up Reid, G. Higgs, Peter Sharma, M. Illicit drugs Methadone Southeastern Asia Policy In South-East Asia Region (SEAR) there were an estimated 400, 000 - 500,000 people who inject drugs (PWID). HIV prevalence among PWID was commonly 20% and higher in Indonesia, Thailand, Myanmar, and some regions of India. Opioid substitution therapy (OST) has been implemented as an important HIV prevention intervention in the Region. Various key challenges and barriers to scale up of OST exist: pervasive stigma and discrimination towards PWID; crimilization of drug use overshadowing a public health response; lack of political will and national commitment; low financial investment; focus towards traditional treatment model of detoxification and rehabilitation; low dose of OST; and poor monitoring and evaluation of programmes.Local evidence has highlighted that OST can be successful within the Asian context. Such evidence should be utilized more widely to advocate for policy and increased political commitment to ensure OST reaches a substantial greater number of drug users than currently exists. 2014 Journal Article http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/36598 10.4081/jphr.2014.204 PAGEPress fulltext |
| spellingShingle | Illicit drugs Methadone Southeastern Asia Policy Reid, G. Higgs, Peter Sharma, M. The long winding road of opioid substitution therapy implementation in South-East Asia: challenges to scale up |
| title | The long winding road of opioid substitution therapy implementation in South-East Asia: challenges to scale up |
| title_full | The long winding road of opioid substitution therapy implementation in South-East Asia: challenges to scale up |
| title_fullStr | The long winding road of opioid substitution therapy implementation in South-East Asia: challenges to scale up |
| title_full_unstemmed | The long winding road of opioid substitution therapy implementation in South-East Asia: challenges to scale up |
| title_short | The long winding road of opioid substitution therapy implementation in South-East Asia: challenges to scale up |
| title_sort | long winding road of opioid substitution therapy implementation in south-east asia: challenges to scale up |
| topic | Illicit drugs Methadone Southeastern Asia Policy |
| url | http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/36598 |