Naloxone Story Archives - Page 2 of 8 - West Virginia Public Broadcasting

Justice Briefing Touches On COVID, Narcan

COVID-19 cases are trending down nationally, but state health officials are still advocating for vaccination, and the governor discusses over the counter Narcan.

COVID-19 cases are trending down nationally, but state health officials are still advocating for vaccination.

In a prerecorded message presented during Gov. Jim Justice’s press briefing Wednesday, state Coronavirus Czar Dr. Clay Marsh said that despite a downward trend in COVID-19 deaths nationally, West Virginians over the age of 65 should still seek out an updated Omicron vaccine booster.

“Ninety percent of deaths that we’re still seeing are in Americans over 90 years old, and about 70 percent in Americans over 75 years old. That really also has mirrored the data that we see in West Virginia,” Marsh said. “So it’s important that anybody who has not gotten their bivalent booster vaccine, who is over 65 years old or who is immunocompromised and is still eligible, please go ahead and update that booster to the new omicron booster.”

He said the average daily death rate nationwide is down to about 250 people, compared to about 400 people a day in previous weeks.

“That’s still more people that die during a bad flu season per day,” Marsh said. “So it’s not to be ignored, but it does demonstrate the benefit of the immunity that we know that people in our country and our state are getting, and they’re getting that both from the vaccines and recovery from infection.”

Marsh also stressed the symptoms of long COVID, including brain fog, that have kept millions of Americans out of the workforce.

“When we think about long COVID, we now know that about four million people are not working, which represents about $190 billion a year in loss of revenue from these people,” he said.

Guidance has not changed, and Marsh reiterated the importance of preventing infection, as well as testing to ensure early interventions that can help avoid serious illness and long COVID.

Naloxone Over The Counter

Wednesday morning, the Federal Drug Administration (FDA) approved the overdose-reversing nasal spray Narcan for over-the-counter, nonprescription, use.

It is the first naloxone product approved for use without a prescription.

Later in the briefing, Justice was asked if he would support any action to increase the availability of the treatment in West Virginia, such as a law requiring it to be in schools and public buildings.

“I don’t know a lot of the details right yet and everything but without any question I would support,” Justice said. “It is a question for the legislature but to make this more available, more present in schools or wherever it may be, churches or whatever, this just saves lives. That’s all there is to it. Anything that we can possibly do to make things better and save lives for the people we need to be out doing it.”

Naloxone, Overdose Prevention Clinics Scheduled At Shepherd University

Naloxone clinics are coming to the Eastern Panhandle to help educate locals on what to do in case of an opioid overdose.

A clinic is scheduled for Wednesday at Shepherd University’s student center. It’s set to teach those attending about what to do during an emergency, including identifying an overdose and how to administer naloxone.

“The biggest fact that we carry out through these trainings – our trainers will say this as well – Narcan and naloxone is safe for anyone, this isn’t something that will impact you if you’re not having an opioid overdose,” organizer and dean of students Jacob Mellow said. “But it can be life saving when in the opioid overdose situation. So that is the number one fact that we want to get out there is that it is safe for everyone, and it is safe to be carried and administered.”

Organizer and criminal justice professor Joshua Stout says these sort of clinics are important for the region. Berkeley County is one of the most vulnerable counties for overdose deaths in a state that has already seen the most deaths per capita from the opioid epidemic by a considerable amount, according to DHHR data.

“When we see these high numbers in our community, affecting our community, it’s near impossible today to find somebody who has not been impacted by the opioid epidemic in some way,” Stout said.

Also touched on during the training are ways to contact emergency services and familiarization with the state’s Good Samaritan law, which dictates that there will be no penalization for contacting said services during an overdose situation.

“That just makes it easier for a person to know that they’re going to provide a life saving service, and just to kind of prevent the stigma around calling or not calling for services,” Mellow said.

The clinic is scheduled for 11 a.m. in the student center’s Rumsey Gallery. Another clinic is coming to the school’s Martinsburg Center on Feb. 14. Both clinics are free and open to the public.

Overdose-Reversing Drug Can Save Lives, Especially During Stressful Holidays

The holidays can be a difficult time for many people, including those in recovery from substance misuse.Monongalia County Health Department Threat Preparedness specialist Joe Klass sat down with reporter Chris Schulz to remind listeners of the accessibility and usefulness of the overdose-reversing drug naloxone.

The holidays can be a difficult time for many people, including those in recovery from substance misuse.

Monongalia County Health Department Threat Preparedness specialist Joe Klass sat down with reporter Chris Schulz to remind listeners of the accessibility and usefulness of the overdose-reversing drug naloxone.

This interview has been lightly edited for clarity.

Schulz: Joe, can you start off here by just explaining to us what naloxone is?

Klass: Naloxone will actually kick opioid molecules off receptors in the brain and get people breathing again after they’ve suffered from an opioid overdose. When someone takes too much of an opioid – opioids are central nervous system depressants – it’ll basically make someone get very tired, eventually pass out, the breathing will slow, and eventually it may stop. When naloxone is administered, it reverses that effect by binding to those receptors in the brain and kicking the opioid molecules off those receptors.

Naloxone has actually been around for a long time as a medication. But only recently have we really seen its use skyrocket as far as overdose reversal. Naloxone works very well, and it works very fast, which is really one of the great benefits of it, and it’s very safe. One of the big things when we do naloxone training is reinforcing the fact that naloxone, if it’s given to someone who’s not suffering from an opioid overdose, it’s really not going to cause any detrimental effects to the person, at least not in the dosages that these people are going to be giving out on the street.

Schulz: Why do you think it’s important or useful for the general public to not only be aware of these medications, but also be ready to use them?

Klass: Currently, naloxone is now in your tool belt with CPR, Stop the Bleed (a national program that encourages bystanders to become trained, equipped, and empowered to help in a bleeding emergency before professional help arrives) and other public trainings. Not just because of the opioid epidemic, but also because you never know when you may need naloxone. Whether it be a child gets into a medicine cabinet, it could be an older individual who’s taking their prescribed pain medication, they may take too many. You really never know when you may need naloxone.

And the reason I think it’s really important to get that training for as many people as possible is not just because one, you never know when you’re going to encounter it, but two is naloxone works very well, and it’s as very safe. So it’ll most likely work and get that person breathing again. And you’ll give them another chance not only to live but, to get into recovery or get into other services they need.

Schulz: So, Joe, it is a holiday week here at the end of December as we speak. We often hear about the emotional impact of this time of year. Are you aware at all of any correlation between this time of year and overdoses?

Klass: I think there definitely is a correlation between holidays and increase in the potential isolation of individuals who don’t have family members or friends that they can kind of celebrate with. And obviously, that increased stress potentially is going to cause people to misuse substances or try to take solace in something else. And in some cases, that is going to be a substance that may hurt them.

Schulz: To the average person who may be interested in going through a naloxone training, what form would this medication come in?

Klass: There are multiple formulations of naloxone, both as far as the dosages and then also, as far as how they’re administered. It’s very common to have naloxone administered via the nose or intranasally, primarily because it’s pretty easy to administer it that way, and it works very well. It absorbs very quickly in the systemic circulation.

However, we also do have intramuscular, IM naloxone, which is given into a muscle basically like someone would get a vaccine or shot. There are a couple of different ways that can kind of be administered. Sometimes you can just draw it up from a vial and administer it that way. There are also different products that actually almost work like EpiPens, where it already has a dose drawn up for you and all you have to do is basically take the safety off and administer it.

I think really the most important thing is whether it be intranasal or intramuscular, it’s what do you have access to and what are you trained on using and what do you feel comfortable using?

Schulz: Part of the reason that I wanted to speak with you is that West Virginia Public Broadcasting recently received some information about one of these formulations that came kind of pre-packaged. And one of the things that was reported in that release was that with the increase in fentanyl related overdoses, there has been a need to sometimes double or triple the dosage of naloxone used when responding to an overdose.

Klass: From a general pharmacological standpoint, it absolutely is true that the more opioids you have in your system, and the higher the potency of the opioids, the more naloxone you’re going to need to reverse the effects. However, there are a lot of different factors that come into play as far as how many doses of naloxone will someone actually need to have the effects reversed because it has to be administered correctly. Depending on how much of an opioid the person took will dictate how fast it’s going to work.

If you do look at the data, it is true that we are seeing fentanyl in more and more things, and fentanyl is very potent. And there are, of course, numerous cases where people are having to administer more than one dose of naloxone whether it be intranasally or intramuscularly.

If you’re interested in naloxone training, contact your local health department for more information.

University Of Charleston Professor Awarded For Naloxone Advocacy

University of Charleston professor of pharmacy Dr. Lindsay Acree has worked with the university’s pharmacy to get naloxone into county health departments as well as into the hands of everyday West Virginians.

As West Virginia continues to deal with its drug epidemic, naloxone has become more readily available around the state in the last few years in the wake of changed state laws regarding its use. Naloxone is a medication that can reduce the effects of an opioid overdose.

Her advocacy on on-the-ground work recently earned her an award from the state health department, and reporter Amelia Knisely spoke with Dr. Acree about it.

This interview has been lightly edited for clarity.

Knisely: Tell me a little bit about your background. When I Google you, I can tell this is a field you’re well-awarded and very passionate about. I’d love to hear where you’re from and how you got started in this field.

University of Charleston professor of pharmacy Lindsay Acree has worked with the university’s pharmacy to get naloxone into county health departments as well as into the hands of everyday West Virginians.

Acree: I’m from South Charleston. I’ve been here the majority of my life. I became a pharmacist in 2013. There were a number of things that made me want to get into addiction and recovery — just wanting to make an impact on individuals and save lives — one of those being I had a high school friend pass away from an overdose my first year of pharmacy school and another one right after I graduated. It has impacted me in a way that really made me want to do something else.

I started working with the health department here in Kanawha County when they started offering their harm reduction program, and I started offering free naloxone training to individuals that were coming into the harm reduction program but also to any one who wanted training.

When the harm reduction program was stopped, we just really didn’t see those people coming in for naloxone. So, [we had] to figure out ways to get it out in the community and meet people where they were. We knew people were dying, and we were seeing an increase in overdoses.

Knisely: For our listeners who may not know what naloxone is, can you provide a brief summary?

Acree: Naloxone is a reversal for an opioid overdose. It’s not a forever kind of thing. Once it reverses the overdose, the idea is that we let that person breathe. And it’s really all we’re doing — we’re just trying to save that person’s life. Anyone can carry naloxone in the state of West Virginia with or without a prescription.

Knisely: Do you feel there is more the state could be doing to get naloxone to more community members around the state?

Acree: I think there are some things we are working on that are helping in that regard (including) distribution in the jail system — when people are leaving, making sure that those individuals who are high risk have the opportunity to get naloxone to take with them. And, in the emergency departments and with EMS, we are working on ways to get those individuals to be able to distribute as well. I think the other piece has to do with stigma, and I know everyone talks about sigma — some people are sick of hearing that word — but it makes a difference. The way that people look at naloxone tends to prevent people from getting it and keeping it with them. We need to get past that stigma.

Knisely: You recently won the West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources’ first-ever Impact Award for Commitment to Advancing the Field of Addiction Prevention, Treatment and Recovery. Congratulations.

Acree: Thank you. I was very surprised that I got the award. I was not expecting that at all. I was very thankful for it.

Knisely: This award is due to your efforts with the University of Charleston in increasing naloxone access around the state and taking it outside of just health departments.

Acree: The big thing that we’ve done here is that we’ve taken a program that was originally mostly at health departments — not that, that’s not a great place to have it, because that’s a great place in every community to access naloxone — but we’ve taken it to the next level. We’ve also looked at what in the legislation needs to change to increase access to naloxone, which I feel like we’ve done in West Virginia by allowing organizations and community groups to be able to distribute naloxone. So, we do all the trainings, or the majority of trainings, for organizations that are going to distribute, as well as we are the ones that coordinate the distribution to those organizations and health departments. I know a lot of people are still dying, and we still have and we still have a lot of work to do, but imagine had we not had that naloxone out there?

Knisely: What is next for West Virginia? Where do we need to focus on to reverse the opioid crisis in our state?

Acree: I always say naloxone is like a band-aid. All we’re doing is keeping people alive, and that’s great. That’s what we want to do. But, we need to connect the dots in the other areas as well. So, really just getting the word out about where they can get treatment, making sure people are aware of how to find treatment and helping them get there. I think those are all the big pieces that need to be a little stronger here in West Virginia.

‘Save A Life Day’ Spreads Support, Naloxone Across The State

West Virginians will be out and about in every corner of the state Thursday in an effort to educate their neighbors and hand out overdose-reversing tools with one goal in mind: Save a Life.

Sept. 8 is Save a Life Day in West Virginia.

West Virginians will be out and about in every corner of the state today in an effort to educate their neighbors and hand out tools with one goal in mind: Save a Life.

“The official name for this day is ‘Save a Life Free Naloxone Day’,” said Joe Solomon, the co-director of Solutions Oriented Addiction Response West Virginia (SOAR). “This September 8 anyone can pick up Narcan in all of West Virginia’s 55 counties at over 180 locations.”

Save a Life Day started out with just two counties in 2020, at the height of the pandemic. But in just two years Save a Life Day has established a presence in all 55 counties.

Solomon’s organization helped spread the event across the state in an effort to get the overdose-reversing drug naloxone into as many hands as possible.

“Naloxone was approved by the FDA 51 years ago,” Solomon said. “The way it works is very simple. It pops off the opioid receptors in your brain and pops them off from the opioid if your brain is flooded with opioids. It allows someone’s breathing to come back online. And that allows their consciousness in turn to come back online.”

Naloxone is a keystone of Save a Life Day because having it readily available can be a literal life changer in a state that Solomon calls ground zero of the opioid crisis.

“In all 55 counties, people want to do something to stop their families and their neighbors from losing loved ones,” Solomon said. “Free Narcan day’s a chance for people to say, ‘Hey, I want you to live, hey, you’re important to our community. Hey, I want you to get through this day, I want you to know that I love you.’”

Naloxone is not the only thing on offer during Save a Life Day. Volunteers and workers also offer education on how to use the medicine, as well as information about local addiction and recovery resources.

Perhaps the most important thing available during Save a Life Day are open minds and a lack of judgment.

Brittany Irick is the coordinator for Monongalia County’s Quick Response Team. Her team works to be on-site after a drug overdose to offer support and resources to those affected.

“Instead of stigmatizing those people who make that choice, let’s give them the tool to prevent a death,” Irick said. “Nobody wakes up and says I want to become addicted to drugs today, I throw my life away. And when people hear that message, I think that it really changes their perspective.”

She points out that overdoses do not discriminate and they are not restricted to substance users.

“As we’ve seen an uptick in fentanyl in pretty much everything all across the state all across the U.S., we’ve realized how important it is to get more Narcan out into the community,” Irick said. “Not just for people who are in active substance use but like college kids, even high school kids.”

Discussions of substance abuse and overdose can get grim at times but in speaking to the people involved in Save a Life Day, there is a palpable energy and excitement to see the event touch every community in the state.

“I’m a little bit partial to helping my state because I think it’s beautiful and full of amazing people,” Irick said. “The fact that all 55 counties are coming together to promote this message like this, this is how we get past this. This is how we get past the drug epidemic.”

There’s a saying in addiction recovery circles: You can’t recover if you’re dead.

Some communities are looking at the longer-term impacts of Save a Life Day. In Logan County, to cap off the day’s activities, organizers like Barb Ellis are preparing for a Recovery Parade to close out the day.

“Once you find recovery, you want recovery for anybody and everybody else,” Ellis said.

Ellis is a peer recovery support specialist for Mountain Laurel Integrated Health Care. She says the day isn’t about one organization or individual, it’s about the community coming together to support each other and address the issue of overdoses together.

“We’re going to be doing a recovery walk,” Ellis said. “We’re asking anybody who is in recovery in our county, or anybody who is a family member of somebody who’s in recovery – because we all know that addiction is an individual thing, it’s a family problem – come walk with them.”

Fellow Logan County recovery specialist and QRT program manager John Kangas says visibility is a powerful tool.

“Being able to have, whether it’s five people, 25 people, 50 people out there walk in the streets, that helps break down the stigma,” Kangas said. “They’ll see these people on the sidelines, will see us walking, “Hey, I know him or I know her. I didn’t know they were in recovery. Holy crap.” Yeah. I mean, we’re everywhere.”

Wherever you are in West Virginia today, be on the lookout for a Save a Life Day event in your community.

AMA: Opioid Prescriptions Down Significantly in W.Va. But Overdose Deaths Continue to Rise

A summary of the AMA’s 2021 Overdose Report is available here.

For the last 10 years, task forces organized by the American Medical Association have been studying overdose deaths in the United States.

The 2021 Overdose Epidemic Report is based on numbers through January 2021. It shows that opioid prescriptions have decreased each year, but deaths continue to rise.

In West Virginia, opioid prescriptions decreased by 64 percent between 2011-2020, including a 10 percent decrease from 2019-2020. Yet, West Virginia continues to see increases in overdoses, mainly due to illicit fentanyl, fentanyl analogs, methamphetamine and cocaine, the study found.

Nationwide, according to provisional data, there were 94,134 overdose deaths last year. In the last decade, there was a 44 percent decrease in opioid prescriptions. Those dipped from 258 million in 2011 to 143 million in 2020.

Harm reduction and other community-based organizations distributed more than 3.7 million doses of naloxone between 2017–2020. The medication reverses the effects of an overdose. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the number of individuals filling naloxone prescriptions from retail pharmacies decreased more than 26 percent.

The AMA made several recommendations with its study. They included:

Remove barriers to evidence-based care for patients with a substance use disorder.
Remove barriers to treatment for substance use disorder and co-occurring mental illness in the nation’s jails and prisons.
Increase access to evidence-based care rather than using punishment and the threat of family separation for persons who are pregnant, peripartum, postpartum and parenting.
Support increased efforts to expand sterile needle and syringe exchange services programs, decriminalize drug checking supplies (e.g., fentanyl test strips) and urge manufacturers to make Naloxone available over the counter.
Ensure opioid litigation funds are used only for public health purposes.