Task

Organisation and management of study tours in the field of drug medicine, HIV therapy and prevention on behalf of various international relief organisations.

The tours included visits to various drug-related outpatient clinics, drug consumption rooms, drug help centres, prisons, police stations or the Federal Opium Board.

Challenge

The tours are supposed to make clear that HIV prevention and therapy measures can only be successful, if they include a nationwide substitution therapy. In this context, the injecting drug users represent the risk group to be considered most.
Germany is certainly one of the leading countries when it comes to legislation, medical quality and a system of public health insurance companies covering the costs of the treatment.

Success

Among others, representatives from Russia, Tajikistan and Thailand joined various study tours. The participants were members of ministries of justice and health, medical institutions, NGOs and national AIDS commissions.
During these tours it became clear that a nationwide substitution therapy is well feasible and a safe handling of the narcotic drugs can be guaranteed in the long term. For many countries in Asia the safety issue is still the main obstacle to the introduction of OST.