Director of Surgery has proposed for the first time in 13 years to deal with the opioid crisis

For the first time in 13 years, the Office of the Minister of Health issued a public health report on Thursday calling on more Americans to carry an excessive dose of naloxone, an antidote to opioids.

span class= "article-image_ caption-inner"> For the surgeon, this is private: his brother is fighting drug addiction. In a statement, American surgeon Jerome Adams urged relatives and friends of opioid users, not just users themselves, to keep drugs in their hands. & "Knowing how to use naloxone and putting it within reach can save lives," Adams wrote.

& Every day 115 Americans die from opioid overdoses. He added that there was one person every 12.5 minutes.

The last public health consultation was in 2005, which warned people about the risk of drinking during pregnancy. This is a follow-up to a 1981 recommendation that women limit alcohol consumption. "What makes this rare moment a reality is that we are facing an unprecedented drug epidemic," Adams said in an interview with the National Bureau of Statistics.

Although many first aid workers, including police, firefighters and emergency medical workers, already carry naloxone, Adams says that's not enough. & He said it was time to ensure that more people had access to such life-saving drugs, because 77% of opioid overdose deaths occurred outside medical institutions and more than half at home.

According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), from 1996 to 2014, at least 26,500 opioid overdoses in the United States were reversed by non-medical professionals using naloxone.

nida defines naloxone as an opioid antagonist, i.e. it binds to opioid receptors and reverses and blockades the effects of other opioid drugs. & quot;

& Edward Bernstein, professor of emergency medicine at Boston University, explained in a conversation that when naloxone hits the brain, it competes and releases opioids that inhibit breathing. & Usually, breathing resumes within minutes. "

NalxOne can be used as an injection or nasal spray, and the trade name is NARCAN. In the past few years, every state has passed legislation to allow naloxone to be used without prescription, but not every pharmacy has naloxone (cvs in 46 states provide naloxone, Walgreens everywhere). In Maine, to get naloxone, you have to be 21 years old.

In recent years, the price of some versions of Naloxone has risen, but due to insurance reasons, this cost has not been passed on to most consumers. The average cash price of NARCAN nasal spray is about $135 (two doses), but for the 39-level consultation of surgeons, CVS announced that it would provide $94.99 to uninsured people.

Before becoming director of surgery, Adams was Indiana's health commissioner, trying to persuade then governor Mike Burns to lift the ban on needle exchange programs in response to the outbreak of HIV in parts of the state.

: "No matter how uncomfortable the syringe services make us, they have proven to save lives, prevent the spread of diseases such as HIV and hepatitis C, and allow people to receive treatment, so that they can embark on the path of rehabilitation," Adams wrote at the time. Curtis Hill, Indiana's attorney general, criticized the projects after

, saying: "Distribution of clean needles encourages drug abusers to shoot, and in many cases more frequently."

Naloxone was similarly criticized. CNN interviewed the authors of a recent study that showed that overdose of reversal drugs might encourage addicts to take higher doses. Jennifer Doleac, an assistant professor of public policy and economics at the University of Virginia and author of the

study, said to CNN: "Our research shows that expanding the use of naloxone is not enough to reduce opioid-related mortality, and may even increase A. Tablet abuse."

"We found that in more areas of drug treatment, the effect was more beneficial," Dorek added. Therefore, if we want to increase the use of naloxone, it is also important to increase the funds for drug treatment.

At this point, Surgical Director Adams agreed: "In order to control opioid addiction and prevent future overdoses, the use of naloxone must be combined with evidence-based treatment to expand the use of opioid disorders," he said.

Although the prevalence of opioids has been declared a public health emergency, funding for federal treatment programs has yet to reach the states. It is hoped that this situation will change in the coming months.

What do you think?

Are you familiar with naloxone before getting the advice of the director of surgery? Do you think this will help reduce the number of deaths associated with opiates? Can you put it by your hand? Please let us know in the comments below.