Pubdate: Tue, 11 Aug 2015
Source: Vancouver 24hours (CN BC)
Copyright: 2015 Vancouver 24 hrs.
Contact: http://vancouver.24hrs.ca/letters
Website: http://vancouver.24hrs.ca/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/3837
Author: Michael Mui
Page: 5

METHADONE REDUCES HIV RISK: STUDY

Methadone Users Four Times Less Likely to Contract HIV Compared to Counterparts

Methadone users are four times less likely to contract HIV compared 
to their counterparts that haven't participated in the opiate 
replacement therapy, according to a new medical study out of 
Vancouver. Dr. Keith Ahamad and his team monitored 1,639 injection 
drug users over a 17-year period primarily in the Vancouver Downtown 
Eastside area - the criteria being that at the start of the study, 
all of them had to test negative for HIV.

His goal was to find out whether the 20% of study participants that 
were in the methadone program - a medical treatment to replace heroin 
- - actually saw any improvements in HIV prevention.

Being drug users, the results came in sporadically over the study 
period. Some results were collected just months after the first test 
and others were collected years later.

"So anytime within 1996 and 2013 they came for at least one 
follow-up," Ahamad said. But what was consistent was how fewer 
methadone users had contracted HIV between their first and follow-up 
tests. According to the results, only 2-3% of methadone users tested 
positive for HIV on their follow-ups, while 8-9% of their 
counterparts not enrolled in methadone programs tested positive.

Ahamad said this is evidence methadone treatment programs work.

"For people that were on methadone, they'll see a doctor more 
frequently, they'll see pharmacist every day, those interactions 
probably had an impact as well," he said. "With opiate addiction 
comes a lot of risky behaviour - sex work, needle sharing, 
incarceration and crime, all those things. Methadone has been shown 
as very effective in reducing those risks."
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom