The Department of Health and Human Resources has begun a distributing naloxone statewide in hopes of preventing opioid overdose deaths and increasing access to the medication.
Naloxone is a drug that can revive victims dying of an opioid overdose – if administered quickly enough. The statewide project aims to expand access to the medication through a more than one million dollar block grant from the federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.
The project will be jointly overseen by SAMHSA and the West Virginia Bureau for Public Health.
Priority will be given to organizations in counties with the greatest number of overdose deaths. So far, more than 16,000 doses of the medication have been purchased. They will be distributed as, two-dose naloxone rescue kits to new and existing programs across the state.
Appalachia Health News is a project of West Virginia Public Broadcasting, with support from the Benedum Foundation, Charleston Area Medical Center and WVU Medicine.