Intensified investigations into drug trafficking and the national attention it has attracted have scared off dealers, leading to a sharp decrease in supplies in Coast Province.
The development has, however, created a new challenge for the country’s healthcare system as addicts plagued by withdrawal symptoms troop to hospitals to seek medical help.
Coast provincial director of medical services, Dr Maurice Siminyu said there had been some deaths that could have been caused by withdrawal-related diseases such as diarrhoea, hepatitis and vomiting but could not confirm this until further investigations.
“The effects of the crackdown on drugs are now being felt, forcing us to use emergency funds to offer medical services to those affected,” he said.
He said medics were being trained to cope with patients. “We are training staff to identify such cases since some symptoms are just like those of diseases like malaria,” he said.
He said Coast province had one government facility dealing with mental patients and one psychiatrist. “We have identified six hospitals where special clinics to treat drug addicts for free will be established,” said Dr Siminyu.
The National Agency for the Campaign Against Drugs Abuse (Nacada) said there had been a significant increase in the number of addicts seeking medical attention in government hospitals and health centres in the past week.
“An increasing number of addicts have been visiting hospitals after experiencing withdrawal symptoms but the problem is lack of adequate rehabilitation centres,” said Nacada chairman Frank Njenga in Mombasa during a courtesy call on Coast PC Ernest Munyi.
The Nacada team is on a fact finding mission to the Coast and other parts of the country to establish the extent of drug addiction.
Mr Munyi confirmed that there had been a significant decrease in drug supplies in the province since police blocked the traffickers routes. “A majority of drug addicts are falling sick due to the shortage of narcotics,” he said.
Earlier in the day, Dr Njenga’s team visited well known drug dens in Mwembe Tayari, Shimanzi go-downs, old Town and the beach near Coast General Hospital.
“We are currently interacting with drug users in these dens and offering counselling since the few rehabilitation centres in the area cannot accommodate all those suffering from withdrawal symptoms,” he said.
Dr Njenga said most of the addicts visiting hospitals were suffering from illnesses like diarrhoea. He said following the increase in addicts seeking help, the government had created a special wing at Coast General Hospital to accommodate them.
This will be done at all government health centres. “We are creating special wards at all government health centres to accommodate those willing to undergo rehabilitation,” the Nacada chairman said.
The agency also appealed to private organisations to set up more rehabilitation centres. According to recent statistics, there are more than 7,000 heroin users in Mombasa and at least three people die every day due to drug-related illnesses.
Despite this large number of users, there are only three rehabilitation centres which accommodate at least 20 people each for four months at a cost of Sh30,000 per person.
Apart from rehabilitation centres, there is an acute shortage of psychiatrists to deal with drug-related mental diseases.
In a recent interview, Mental Health director David Kiima said there were only 25 psychiatrists and about 400 nurses trained to deal with mental illness in the country. Dr Kiima said of the 25 psychiatrists, only 20 worked in government health facilities.