Olivier Aubry
MSF Head of Mission in Iran
MSF provides assistance in Teheran, in a poor working class district located in the south of the city, having the highest concentration of drug users in Teheran.
Back from the field
They live on the streets or in shelters set up for drug users. This extreme hardship causes social problems that hinder their access to health care.
MSF assists drug users by providing them with primary health care—i.e. basic treatment—, medical consultations and nursing care. There’s a midwife too.
Our health centre is open to drug users, women and men alike.
We offer screening for HIV, tuberculosis, hepatitis B and hepatitis C. For hepatitis C, we screen, treat and follow-up patients until the end of their treatment and they’re cured of the disease.
We also have a team of psychologists and psychiatrists to assist patients with mental health issues brought on by a combination of substance abuse and deprivation.
Our centre is also open to other vulnerable groups, like the Ghorbati community, a gipsy community in Iran. We’re also able to reach out and provide health care to communities via our mobile clinics who go to places where drug users are gathering.
A year ago we opened a similar project in Mashhad, a city in northeast Iran near the borders with Turkmenistan and Afghanistan. This project is set up mainly within the Afghan community.
There are between one and two million Afghan refugees in Iran. They too are affected by drug addiction issues.

Providing assistance in Iran since 1986,
MSF opened the project in South Teheran
in 2012.