General Description.

After 5 years, at the end of June 2024, MSF handed over the project to Kiambu County Department of Health and its partners. 1,619 patients have been enrolled into the program with 556 currently actively receiving care.

In September 2019, MSF opened the first Medically Assisted Therapy (MAT) clinic in Kiambu County, providing opioid substitution therapy (OST) to help people who use drugs (PWUD) to contain their addiction. Before that PWUDs in Kiambu had to travel long distance to reach the nearest MAT clinic which was in Nairobi, resulting in the low enrolment rates in the MAT clinic. Apart from travelling from the county to the capital for their opioid substitution therapy, the patients also had to move to several health facilities to seek other health care services including mental health, outpatient services among others.

The MAT services are offered within the precincts of Karuri Level 4 Hospital in Karuri, Kiambu County. To enhance access to care MSF set up two more decentralized clinics in prisons health facilities in Ruiru Prisons Staff Training College (PSTC) Health Centre and Thika GK Prison, which serve both the PWUDs in the community and the incarcerated patients.

The clinics provide methadone and Buprenorphine, in liquid and tablet forms, respectively, as opioid substitution therapy (OST)which is one of the components of the harm reduction package. The harm reduction approach aims at reducing negative health, social, legal and financial consequences of drug addiction. In the MAT clinic- a one stop facility, a holistic approach is applied, including the prevention of infections and transmission of HIV and viral hepatitis - caused by using unsterile needles - prevention and treatment of TB, mental health services, and re-integration support with family and society