State to provide NALAXONE free of cost
Source: Hueiyen News Service

Imphal, January 28 2015: "Considering the serious problem of death cases due to drug-overdose, the State Government has decided to procure NALAXONE, a lifesaving drug to treat drug-overdose cases, in one go for a year and provide free treatment to the needy in one months' time", PK Jha, Project Director, Manipur State AIDS Control Society (MACS) has disclosed.

He was speaking as chief guest of a day-long State Level Consultation on "Improving Access to Nalaxone at Health Care Settings in Manipur" held at MACS Conference Hall, RD Wing, Lamphelpat under the joint aegis of National Health Mission (NHM), Manipur State AIDS Control Society (MACS) and Community Network for Empowerment (CoNE) on Wednesday.

Besides, PK Jha, the consultation was also attended by Dr O Ibomcha Singh, Mission Director, State Health Society, Government of Manipur as president.

Though drug overdose is a common phenomenon among the people who injects drugs in the state, the unavailability of overdose data makes difficult to accurately describe the overdose burden in Manipur.

Hence, absence of an official overdose data of the state government has failed to make serious impact on the general public over the seriousness of the issue.

But as per the report available from NGOs and communities, overdose is one of the main factors for death among people who use drugs which can be saved by NALAXONE, a drug which is cheap and at the same time safe to use.

NALAXONE has been included in the list of essential medicine by World Health Organisation (WHO) since 1983.However, this medicine is still unavailable in health care settings in the state.

Speaking on the occasion PK Jha stated "considering the problems being faced by people who used drugs in case of drug-overdose and the feedbacks being given by various NGOs in this field, the State government has decided to provide NALAXONE in one go for a year" while adding that "The medicine to treat drug-overdose would be made available in health care centres of the state.

As of now, the approval from the Finance department is being awaited so that the problem of drug-overdose is met at the earliest possible in the interest of the drug users' community.

Hopefully, NALAXONE would be available free of cost to the public in a months' time" .

He also informed that the most important is to make the general population aware that NALAXONE is available in the health care centres.

The information should be provided to all NGOs working in drug-use.

"MACS will make sure that NALAXONE will be available in proper quantity as soon as the Finance department approves of procuring the medicine", he assured.

Delivering the presidential speech, Dr O Ibomcha Singh pointed out the need to procure Nikethamidealong with NALAXONE.

"Drug-overdose does not necessarily come only with opioid where administering of NALAXONE is required.

There are also cases of drug-overdose when other drugs apart from opioid are used.

As such, when we procure NALAXONE, there is also the need to procure Nikethamide which can be used in all kinds of drug-overdose cases," he said.

He also informed that NALAXONE should be made available in all health centres and also sub-health centres.

"Trainings should also be imparted at different levels including ANMs and ASHAs" .

He also pointed out the need to procure the drug which could last for over three years and more.

Palungbam Kennedy, a past drug user, and a survived victim of drug-overdose, while sharing his experience, stated "I had experienced drug-overdose a couple of times, each time I was saved by volunteers of NGOs working in this field.

Finally I decided to give up drugs and joined the OST programme under SASO.

Considering the problems I had faced with drug-overdose and the need to bring the drug users to the mainstream, I started volunteering myself to help people like me.

During the course of my volunteerism, I had been able to save about 50 people who use drugs from overdose related deaths in the last one year" .

Palungbam Kennedy is presently working as a volunteer in CoNE and also a Para Legal Volunteer at the Legal Aid Clinic, CoNE.

As a part of the consultation meet State Committee comprising experts from government departments, communities and NGOs have been formed to develop the protocol for overdose management in the state.

The Committee will also look into developing a mechanism to collect data and compile at the state level to understand the burden of overdose and better planning in future.

It also agreed to develop IEC materials to give awareness to the public on overdose prevention and management.

The consultation was also attended by chief medical officers of Ukhrul, Thoubal, Chandel, Churchandpur, Imphal East, Imphal West and Bishnupur districts in addition to representatives from various NGOs.

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