Stakeholders in the health sector have been challenged to consider harm reduction as a key guide in driving public health strategies in Africa.
Harm reduction refers to interventions aimed at reducing the negative effects of health
behaviours without necessarily extinguishing the problematic health behaviours entirely or permanently.
Speaking during the third annual harm reduction exchange themed: ‘Amplifying the Voice of Harm Reduction Advocacy Across Africa’, President of the African Medical Association and the Association of Medical Councils of Africa, Dr. Kgosi Letlape, tasked African governments to adopt harm reduction approaches when regulating public health challenges.
Harm reduction, he said, is a more transformative strategy than prohibition-based policies and is better than simply advocating for complete abstinence, adding that harm reduction is a better approach to reducing tobacco-related death and disease.
“Harm reduction is a practical and transformative approach that incorporates community driven public health strategies including prevention, risk reduction, and health promotion to empower people who use drugs and their families with the choice to live healthy and self directed,” Dr. Letlape said.
He expressed the hope that lobbying efforts will spark renewed conversations on tobacco harm reduction among all stakeholders, including regulators and policymakers, which could lead to effective regulation and access to noncombustible product alternatives for adult smokers who are unable or uninterested in quitting.”
Across the world, he said, harm reduction strategies have been deployed in public health as a pragmatic and compassionate approach to address various issues, particularly in the context of substance use and other risky behaviors.
Some of these strategies, according to him, include Needle Exchange Programs, supervised injection sites, PrEP (Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis), Nicotine Replacement Therapy (NRT), Vaping and E-Cigarettes, and supervised consumption of medications.
In her remarks, Dr. Vivianne Manyeki, consultant in Otolaryngology, Kenyatta National Hospital, Nairobi, noted that “organizations that practice harm reduction incorporate a spectrum of strategies that meet people where they are on their own terms and may serve as a pathway to additional health and social services, including prevention, treatment, and recovery services.”
On her part, Integra Africa Principal, Dr. Tendai Mhizha emphasized the role that journalists and media houses should play in handling misinformation and disinformation in tobacco harm reduction discussions.
She said “the media play a critical role in accelerating the progress towards full uptake of harm reduction strategies in all spheres of health across the continent, adding that with the advent of technology, misinformation and disinformation are becoming increasingly prevalent with the democratization of the information space.”
Also speaking at the event, the Public Health Specialist and Secretary General of Harm Reduction Society in Kenya, Dr. Michael Kariuki said “Harm reduction is the better path forward. With harm reduction, regulators provide adult smokers with information, choice and support to expand the off-ramp from smoking – while also continuing to drive down underage use.
According to him, “providing adult smokers with less harmful alternatives to cigarettes is a powerful step in achieving this goal”, he said.
