Buprenorphine Babe Goes to Lebanon

Greetings from Beirut, site of the 22nd annual International Harm Reduction Conference! Methadone Man and I have arrived just in time for some very exciting news: Lebanon has announced it will legalize sales of the opiate substitution treatment buprenorphine.

Along with methadone, buprenorphine is a safe and effective medicine that reduces dependency on heroin and other opiates. It also reduces HIV infection rates by limiting the use and sharing of contaminated syringes. “It is the hope of the Lebanese government that buprenorphine will save lives,” said Walid Ammar, director general of the Lebanese Ministry of Public Health, at a press conference this morning in Beirut. "Its implementation has helped to contain HIV and Hepatitis C infections amongst injection drug use communities in every country where it has been introduced."

The buprenorphine pilot project will be launched in four public hospital pharmacies in Beirut over the next several months. Officially, about 460,000 people are currently living with HIV and AIDS in the Middle East and North Africa, but that number has doubled in less than a decade and is widely believed to be underreported. Along with Eastern Europe, it is only one of two regions in the world where HIV infections are increasing. Sexual transmission is the primary means by which HIV is spread here, but injection drug use is growing in the region—it is estimated that about 1 million people inject drugs throughout the Middle East and North Africa. So improving access to substitution therapies, such as methadone and buprenorphine, is key to stopping the spread of HIV, and ultimately, saving lives.

Lebanon has long been a leader in the Middle East and North Africa region in terms of promoting services and programs to support people living with HIV as well as those who use drugs. That’s one reason it was chosen as the first country in the region to host the 2011 International Harm Reduction Conference.  More than 1,000 delegates from 80 countries—researchers, policymakers, doctors, and advocates—will gather here next week to share their knowledge on harm reduction strategies, including substitution treatment, needle exchange, and protecting human rights. Together we can help stop HIV in its tracks!

Methadone Man and I plan to update you on all that we learn in the coming days here in Beirut, so stay tuned!

For more information on the Methadone Man and Buprenorphine campaign, please visit www.methadoneman.org. You can also find us on Facebook and Twitter.