Programs being offered by hospitals in Tainan City and Tainan County to help heroin addicts kick their habit with methadone substitution have achieved good results, according to a doctor at National Cheng Kung University Hospital.
Wang Yu-ting (
Before joining the programs, 67 percent of the 225 drug abusers had committed criminal offenses, but after receiving the methadone treatment, the criminal recidivism rate dropped to 0.02 percent, Wang said.
He said that the hospital had treated 35 new heroin addicts in the past two months and has found that approximately 70 percent of them have contracted HIV, hepatitis or syphilis -- mostly through the intravenous injection of opiates.
Noting that intravenous injection has replaced sexual contact as the No. 1 cause of HIV transmission in the nation, Wang cited statistics saying that more than 2,000 people in Taiwan contracted HIV in 2005 from using contaminated needles or syringes to inject heroin.
Methadone substitution is a relatively inexpensive method used by many countries to treat opiate addiction.
South Korean K-pop girl group Blackpink are to make Kaohsiung the first stop on their Asia tour when they perform at Kaohsiung National Stadium on Oct. 18 and 19, the event organizer said yesterday. The upcoming performances will also make Blackpink the first girl group ever to perform twice at the stadium. It will be the group’s third visit to Taiwan to stage a concert. The last time Blackpink held a concert in the city was in March 2023. Their first concert in Taiwan was on March 3, 2019, at NTSU Arena (Linkou Arena). The group’s 2022-2023 “Born Pink” tour set a
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