Craintes sur le futur des traitements de substitution aux opiacés en Crimée

La Crimée menace de forcer des centaines d’usagers de drogues à redevenir dépendants ou à immigrer, en fermant ses programmes de TSO.

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By Ed Holt

Under Russian control, opioid substitution therapy for hundreds of Crimeans could come to an abrupt end. Ed Holt spoke to patients and providers in the peninsula about their concerns.

Russia's annexation of Crimea is threatening to force hundreds of people who use drugs back into addiction or turn them into refugees as opioid substitution treatment (OST) programmes in the region seem set to end.

People who inject illicit drugs in Crimea, which, following a controversial March 16 referendum, will become part of Russia possibly within months, have had access to OST in Ukraine for years. Indeed, Ukraine's recent reduction of new HIV infections has been put down to the widespread implementation of harm reduction programmes.

But Russian law forbids the provision of OST and organisations working to provide services to people who use drugs in Crimea say there is now a question mark over the fate of the more than 800 people receiving OST in the region. Irina Potapova, coordinator for OST for the International HIV/AIDS Alliance in Ukraine, which runs harm reduction programmes in Crimean cities, tells The Lancet: “In the worst-case scenario, hundreds of patients would be forced to become refugees and seek treatment in mainland Ukraine.”

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