- Title: Kenya struggles to cope with growing number of heroin users
- Date: 7th October 2019
- Summary: KIAMBU, KENYA (RECENT) (REUTERS) VARIOUS EXTERIORS OF KARURI LEVEL 4 HOSPITAL RECOVERING HEROIN ADDICT, JASON, WALKING INTO CLINIC AND SITTING DOWN JASON'S HANDS JASON WALKING TO COUNTER JASON TAKING HIS DOSE OF METHADONE (SOUNDBITE) (English) RECOVERING HEROIN ADDICT, JASON, SAYING: "The withdrawal symptoms are so bad because at times you feel like there is a fever, there is a stomach ache. Your body has a lot of pain. You have a lot of pain in the body especially the backbone. Headaches, stomach aches, you can't do anything without them." ANOTHER RECOVERING HEROIN ADDICT TAKING HIS METHADONE MSF DRUG USE ACTIVITY MANAGER IN KENYA, ANGELA THIONG'O, SPEAKING WITH MEDICAL STAFF (SOUNDBITE) (English) MSF DRUG USE ACTIVITY MANAGER IN KENYA, ANGELA THIONG'O, SAYING: "Because we are offering an integrated approach, all services are under one roof, I think it will offer what the patients require in terms of, for example if they need HIV care, if they need TB treatment, if they have the methadone we have it here, hepatitis C treatment, everything." RECOVERING HEROIN ADDICT, PETER, HOLDING HIS DAUGHTER (SOUNDBITE) (Swahili) RECOVERING HEROIN ADDICT, PETER, SAYING: "I am pleading with them and would like to tell them not to smoke heroin again because it is not a good drug. It kills you slowly while you are still alive. It makes you feel desperate and you would go to any extent just to take heroin." PETER IN HIS HOME (SOUNDBITE) (Swahili) RECOVERING HEROIN ADDICT, PETER, SAYING: "I started methadone because I am now totally broke with no income, I am not able to make ends meet so I needed assistance to help me out of the habit." PETER AND JASON AT THE MEDICAL CLINIC 19, (SOUNDBITE) (English) RECOVERING HEROIN ADDICT, JASON, SAYING: "Young Kenyans especially the youths are jobless and this leads to guys going to drug dens using marijuana, using the pills, the heroin so that they can remove their stress in their heads so at times it’s because of joblessness." NAIROBI, KENYA (RECENT) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF NAIROBI CITY SKYLINE AND GENERAL VIEWS OF UHURU PARK
- Embargoed: 21st October 2019 11:17
- Keywords: Kenya methadone drugs MSF Kiambu Nairobi Malindi
- Location: NAIROBI, KIAMBU AND MALINDI, KENYA
- City: NAIROBI, KIAMBU AND MALINDI, KENYA
- Country: Kenya
- Topics: Health/Medicine
- Reuters ID: LVA002B03KSIF
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: EDITORS NOTE: SOME MATERIAL SHOT IN ORIGINAL 4:3
Kenya has a problem: it is struggling with an increasing number of heroin users.
In the past eight years, the number of Kenyans injecting drugs jumped by more than 50 percent and the majority of users inject heroin, the country's health ministry says.
Many of these users are young, driven to heroin by peer pressure and the stress of poverty and joblessness.
And scoring heroin is not difficult: the port city of Mombasa is a growing hub for drugs from Afghanistan bound for the West.
And it's cheap: a single heroin dose costs about 150 Kenyan shillings ($1.45), former users told Reuters, roughly one-fifth the average price of a single dose in the United States, according to the United Nations.
The non-profit Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) recently opened Kenya's first clinic in Kiambu, 20 kilometres north of the capital.
It offers a lifeline to recovering heroin addicts who enroll in the treatment program which gives them access to free methadone daily.
Methadone attaches to the brain's opioid receptors, eliminating cravings and withdrawal symptoms when the correct dose is taken. The evidence-based standard is to treat heroin users with methadone with no limit for when they are weaned off, experts say.
Twenty-six-year-old Jason says he'll never forget the date he changed his life by starting methadone: February 28, 2018, after five years of heroin use that led to prison stints, sickness and fights with his parents. His life goal is to convince other users to make the same choice.
He still remembers the pain of going cold turkey.
"The withdrawal symptoms are so bad because at times you feel like there is a fever, there is a stomach ache. Your body has a lot of pain. You have a lot of pain in the body especially the backbone. Headaches, stomach aches, you can't do anything without them," Jason says.
He takes his daily methadone at the MSF clinic because it is closer to his home than the clinic he began with and because he can spend time with former users who have abandoned heroin more recently than him.
When they arrive for their dose -- in a plastic cup instead of an injection -- they can also get psychological counseling, care for other diseases such as HIV/AIDs, tuberculosis, and hepatitis, and basic support such as clean drinking water and help with wounds infected from needle use.
When treating users in Nairobi who contracted hepatitis C, MSF found a problem: patients had to visit one clinic to get medicine for hepatitis C, another for their daily methadone dose, and a third for any other needs.
"We are offering an integrated approach, all services are under one roof, I think it will offer what the patients require in terms of, for example if they need HIV care, if they need TB treatment, if they have the methadone we have it here, hepatitis C treatment, everything," said Angela Thiong'o, MSF's drug use activity manager in Kenya.
For 26-year-old Peter, methadone granted him a second chance with his wife, who now trusts him to walk 10 minutes from their home to the clinic with their two-year-old daughter, who held his hand while he stood behind a curtain to drink his dose under observation from a staff member.
"It kills you slowly while you are still alive. It makes you feel desperate and you would go to any extent just to take heroin," said Peter, whose 14 years of heroin use are visible on his face.
Beyond the physical effects, Peter knows all too well how methadone is saving his life.
"I started methadone because I am now totally broke with no income, I am not able to make ends meet so I needed assistance to help me out of the habit," Peter said.
For Peter and Jason, it's a case of living one day at a time. For now, they know that the daily dose of methadone is keeping them alive - and giving them hope. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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