Rajasthan’s 3rd OST centre unveiled at Ajmer hospital

JAIPUR: The third centre of the state for Oral Substitution Therapy (OST) was inaugurated at JLN Medical College and attached hospital in Ajmer on Monday for treatment of injectable drug users by substituting the injectables with oral medication. The first two existing centres for the therapy has already been established in Jaipur and Kota.
OST involves substitution of injecting opioid drugs with oral medication that effectively minimises craving and withdrawals and thereby enables injectable drug users to stop injecting drugs. Since OST has proved to be successful in reducing drug related harms including HIV transmission, such a centre has been established at Ajmer’s government-run medical college.
Under the National AIDS Control Programme, OST has been included in the comprehensive package of services to injecting drug users. Those who use injecting drugs are always at high risk of getting infected with HIV. According to an estimation, 7% to 10% of IV drug users got HIV infection just because of they share needles.
“There are more than 500 IV drug users in Ajmer city only. They all will be treated here in the OST Centre with oral tablets. It will be the third such centre in the state,” Dr VB Singh, principal and controller, JLN Medical College told TOI.
He said there are more than 1.8 lakh IV drug users in the country and Manipur, Nagaland, Mizoram, Punjab and Delhi are on top of the list of states having highest IV drug users.
Nodal officer of the centre, Ajmer, Dr Charan Singh Jilowa said, “IV drug users mostly consume opium and related products like smack through.”
At the OST centre, all IV drug users would be given sublingual tablet to chew. Patients are required to come to the centre daily as they will chew these tablets in front of a nurse. The National AIDS Control Organization (NACO) has adopted harm reduction as a strategy to prevent HIV among injectable drug users.