Speaking to Lusa News Agency, the head of the ARS Algarve Regional Health Board said the project should move forward next year and aims to help drug addicts receiving methadone treatment in their home countries to continue their treatment in Portugal.
“It is a way of monitoring the treatment of foreign drug addicts who visit Portugal and also of reducing some of the risks associated to the transporting of large quantities of methadone, such as the possibility of trafficking and thefts, for example”, said João Moura Reis, head of the ARS.
The project, which falls under the competency of Algarve’s Division for Intervention in Addictive Behaviours and Dependencies (DICAD), implies that visiting addicts are duly referenced by health services in their homelands, and that information will be shared with the Algarve’s health services so that they can continue their treatment.
Also within the scope of relationships between tourism and health, the ARS/Algarve is drawing up a protocol with the Doutor Ricardo Jorge National Health Institute to warn the region’s tour operators of when there are certain conditions more favourable to the spreading of diseases like Dengue or West Nile Fever.
“Ponds on golf courses and swimming pools, for example, are potential breeding grounds for mosquitoes and other insects that can be vectors of certain pathologies”, said João Moura Reis.
The plan further involves the Algarve Tourism Board (RTA), with which the ARS is also firming up yet another protocol, this time in the area of Basic Life Support, which will be carried out in collaboration with the INEM national medical emergency institute.
João Moura Reis explained the objective with this protocol is to provide certified courses in administering first aid and life-saving interventions such as using an Automated external defibrillator, to the region’s hotels and commercial establishments.