PRESCRIPTION DRUG OVERDOSE IS A HUGE NATIONAL HEALTH CRISIS...new NALOXONE/NARCAN injector approved for home use...4/4/14... Oh, and dont forget about heroin. Cory Monteith and Philip Seymour Hoffman might have been saved… The FDA says accidental drug poisoning has now surpassed CAR ACCIDENTS as the leading cause of accidental death in this country. NBC noted that across the nation that NALOXONE “has saved more than 10,000 people.” Margaret Hamburg, the FDA Commissioner, said, “This approval today will enable care – emergency care, life-saving care to be given on the spot when it’s needed, whether you’re in a clinic or a hospital or on the street.” The New York Times (4/4/14) reported the hand-held device from Kaleo Inc., called Evzio, delivers a single dose of naloxone, a medication “that reverses the effects of an overdose, and will be” used on people “who have stopped breathing or lost consciousness from an opioid drug overdose.” The paper pointed out that the move “to quickly approve the new treatment,” which is expected to be out this summer, “comes as deaths from opioids continue to mount, including an increase in those from heroin, which contributed to the death of the actor Philip Seymour Hoffman in February.” The Wall Street Journal (4/4, Burton) provided details of the device, noting it verbally tells the user how to use the device and then concludes with an instruction to call for emergency help. The goal, noted the paper, is to allow people without medical training to potentially save a person’s life. FDA Commissioner Margaret A. Hamburg said, “Today’s approval of Evzio provides an important new tool in our arsenal to more effectively combat the devastating effects of opioid overdose, which is one part of our comprehensive work to support opioid safety.” The Washington Post (4/4, Dennis) included background information about the device, noting Federal officials “fast-tracked the approval of Evzio – the FDA reviewed its application in less than four months – saying it could play a” vital “role in preventing some of the estimated 16,000 annual deaths attributed to prescription drug overdoses.” According to the Post, opioid overdoses “are marked by slowed breathing, extreme fatigue and changes in heart rate.” The paper noted that because victims “tend to lose consciousness and fall ill quickly,” equipping family members of friends to quickly “administer naloxone” before the arrival of emergency medical staff “could mean the difference between life and death.” The AP (4/4) reported the FDA’s announcement “follows several state efforts to widen access to the antidote.” According to the piece, at least 17 states and the District of Columbia “now allow naloxone – commonly known by the brand name Narcan – to be distributed to the public.” Still, the AP, noted some have raised questions about the move. Maine Gov. Paul LePage “has opposed a bill that would allow health care professionals to prescribe it for caregivers and family members and allow more emergency responders to carry the drug, saying it could raise Medicaid costs.” Bob Rappaport, director of the division of anesthesia, analgesia and addiction products at the FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, pointed out that making the “product available for use beyond an ambulance or hospital ‘could save lives by facilitating earlier use of the drug in emergency situations,’” according to the Los Angeles Times (4/4, Healy). Still, “the FDA cautioned that Evzio is not a substitute for emergency medical care.” The news was also covered by CNN (4/4, Dolan, Draznin, Cnn), the Boston Globe (4/3, Kotz), Reuters (4/4, Heavey), USA Today (4/4, Lee), and NBC News (4/4) on its website. The news was reported by NBC News (4/4) in a separate report on its website, as well as by the Washington Post (4/4, Berman), TIME (4/4, Park), Forbes (4/3), and CQ (4/4, Ethridge, Subscription Publication). New York police to get kits to tackle opioid overdose. Several reports focused on the move by New York state to use the device to curb the soaring death rates from opioid overdoses. The New York Times (4/3, A21, Goodman, Subscription Publication) noted, for instance, that “with deaths from heroin and opioid prescription pills soaring,” New York State Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman on Thursday “is expected to announce a push to have law enforcement officers across the state carry a drug that is effectively an antidote to overdose.” The paper noted the program, “to be funded primarily from $5 million in criminal and civil seizures from drug dealers,” would enable the officers to get a kit with the medicine, naloxone, “and the training to use it to every state and local officer in New York, the attorney general’s office said.” The Albany (NY) Times Union (4/4) provided more details of the state-level program, noting it “will also teach officers how to properly administer the drug when responding to an overdose call.” According to the paper, “each kit costs about $60 and contains two prefilled syringes of naloxone, two atomizers for nasal administration, gloves, and a booklet on how to use the drug.” Holder calls for “balanced approach” on heroin. The AP (4/4, Press) reported that yesterday, US Attorney General Eric Holder “told a Senate committee...that a ‘balanced approach’ involving treatment, education and enforcement is needed to confront the country’s heroin crisis and avoid mistakes made during the widespread use of crack,” when the focus was on “large-scale arrests and imprisonment.” Recently in a video message, Holder “called the heroin epidemic an ‘urgent and growing public health crisis.’”
Posted on: Fri, 04 Apr 2014 14:08:09 +0000
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