The head of a Ugandan health care organization said that his clients “are aware that the treatment could be no more. So people feel like the treatment is on and off. The last time [the clinic shut down] they suffered.”
Date: 5/25
Region: Africa
Country: Uganda
Topic: Health
Policy Lens: Moral Leadership
Entry Type: Field Observation
Additional Context: Wamala Twaibu leads the Uganda Harm Reduction Network, or UHRN. The nonprofit set up the only clinic offering medically assisted therapy for people who inject drugs in Kampala, the country’s capital. The clinic has more than 700 clients, according to Twaibu, who have gained access to methadone or other heroin replacement therapy and hundreds more who have gotten services to help treat or prevent HIV, including clean needles. Immediately following the stop-work order, the clinic had to shut everything down, including HIV treatment and opioid replacement therapy.
The U.S. State Department granted a waiver to UHRN’s implementing partner, allowing the clinic to reopen less than three weeks after it was shut down.
Source: Devex

