Mr. Pervez Ahmad is a 38 year old man, living with his wife and 4 children. Hewas jobless and his elder son was looking after the livelihood of the family. Mr. Pervez had been into drugs since 10 years. Earlier he used to consume cigarettes and Pan Masala but one day his friend gave him a shot of injection and told him that it is the best way to feel relaxed and forget all tensions.
Mr. Pervez started taking drugs through injections from beginning and later found himself to be addicted to it. This addiction towards drugs got him trapped and he started facing financial and physical problems.
Everyone in the society came to know about his drugs addiction and started hating him and avoiding him. All these things affected his work and there economic condition worsened.
One day he read in newspaper about Oral Substitution Therapy centre and his friend who was also into drugs informed him about this center where free treatment is provided to the addicts and which was located in the Civil Hospital, Kashipur. When he visited the OST centre, he asked other drug users, whether they were getting any benefit from the center or not. it or not. Patients who were already taking regular OST treatment told him about their benefits and with this he took decision to take treatment for his addiction too. He told everything to the OST Centre counselor about his addiction. The counselor in the OST center explained him in detail about treatment and its benefits and other aspects of treatment, from where his drug addiction treatment was started. He promised himself that he will never take drug again in life. He used to visit the OST center everyday for medication regularly; his family also supported him in getting the treatment.
With the support of OST treatment his health status improved. Mr. Pervez is taking medicine through OST centre since 2 and half years. His financial, physical and social condition has imporved. After seeing improvement in his condition and willingness to start his own work, his family member helped him to setup his own shop. Today he is working in his own shop and is happy from his present condition.
Note: Written Consent has been taken from the candidate to use his real name and his photo for this narration.
This is blog is written by the Technical Support Unit which is being supported by PHFI.
Public Health Foundation of India (PHFI) with support of the National AIDS Control Organization (NACO) is implementing the Technical Support Units (TSUs) in five states of the country namely Jharkhand, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh since September 2018. The TSUs provide technical assistance to the state HIV/AIDS program to ensure they meet their HIV prevention, care, support and treatment deliverables. They are co-located with the State AIDS Control Society offices and work in close coordination with them. The team assists the states in strategizing the HIV program and monitors the implementation of the program by different facilities across the state; the maximum being the Targeted Intervention (TI) projects reaching out to the HIV key populations (KP) namely the female sex workers, men who have sex with men, transgenders, injection drug users, migrants and truckers.