US Surgeon General urges more opioid risk individuals to carry lifesaving drug

In the face of the opioid crisis in the USA, yesterday, the country’s Surgeon General, Jerome Adams, urged more Americans to carry a lifesaving medication that can reverse the effects of an opioid overdose.

The drug, naloxone, is already carried by many first responders, such as EMTs and police officers. The Surgeon General is now recommending that more individuals, including family, friends and those who are personally at risk for an opioid overdose, also keep the drug on hand.

An estimated 2.1 million people in the US struggle with an opioid use disorder. Rates of opioid overdose deaths are rapidly increasing. Since 2010, the number of opioid overdose deaths has doubled from more than 21,000 to more than 42,000 in 2016, with the sharpest increase occurring among deaths related to illicitly made fentanyl and fentanyl analogs (synthetic opioids).