Utilization of opiate agonist therapy services by people who inject drugs in Northern Nigeria.

Makput D.M¹, Nwoga C.N¹, Ajuma C.E¹, Ibraheem A.W², Mshelia I.A², Musami U.B².

¹Jos University Teaching Hospital, Jos, North central Nigeria.

²Federal Neuropsychiatric Hospital, Maiduguri, Northeastern Nigeria.

Corresponding Author: harrymakput@gmail.com

ABSTRACT

Nigeria has a high rate of drug abuse. Studies reveal that as high as 1% of its adult population are involved in injecting drug use, an activity which markedly increases risks of contracting and transmitting blood borne viruses.
Opiate Agonist Therapy (OAT) is the provision of an opioid agonist medication (e.g methadone) at an appropriate dose, for as long as a person requires it, by a trained healthcare provider. OAT is a harm reduction strategy for reducing various risks associated with injecting drug use among people who inject opioid drugs (PWID).
The objectives of the OAT program is to make oral methadone available for people who inject opioids as a substitute for the more harmful parenteral opiate which they are using. OAT is an essential public health intervention.
The numerous benefits of opiate agonist therapy include among other benefits thus: it reduces drug-related mortality by 50%; it reduces by half HIV and HCV related infection risks through reduced injecting frequency and needle-sharing. It also Improves HIV and HCV treatment outcomes and significantly reduces risk of overdose.