A drug treatment center, which prescribes Suboxone to treat drug addiction, today opened in Ho Chi Minh City’s Go Vap District. This is the first of its kinds in Vietnam and marks an important progress of the city in treating drug addiction.
Currently, the world is making good progress in treating drug addition. Along with Methadone, additional medications including Buprenorphine, Naltrexone, Naloxone, Suboxone can be used for treating drug addiction. Among them, Suboxone are the most prominent and preeminent as it is safe for patients; accordingly, it is widely used in many countries in the world.
After the approval of Ministry of Health the Viet Nam Administration for HIV/AIDS Control and HCMC authority have implemented pilot drug addition treatment with Suboxone in Go Vap District with the financial support of many organizations.
For years, HCMC has adopted many measures to help drug addicts to rehabilitate and integrate into the community. One of the measures is treatment with Methadone. So far the city has 13 centers to treat drug addiction with Methadone. The new center is hoped to contribute reducing the number of drug addicts and raise patients’ health condition. This also help ensure the city’s social order and economic development.
According to an estimation, the city has more than 19,000 drug addicts yet it is not enough figure as there are many homeless drug addicts.
The municipal People’s Committee opened the center with the participation of representatives from the Ministry of Health, French and Amercian Consulate General and other related agencies.
