The Opioid Crisis
Deaths from opioid overdoses have risen dramatically in the past 20 years. Opioids are drugs like Oxycontin, Percocet, heroin, methadone and fentanyl. Opioids are respiratory depressants - people die during overdoses because they stop breathing. The escalating opioid overdose epidemic is one of the most serious public health problems confronting the U.S. Deaths from overdose outnumber deaths from motor vehicle crashes bymore than one and a half times. In response, health policy, legislation, and research funding are increasingly converging in support of the distribution of naloxone, an opioid antagonist, and community-based opioid overdose prevention programs.
Naloxone (brand name Narcan) temporarily blocks the effects of opioids in someone who is overdosing. Since the 1990s, community-based programs have trained laypeople on overdose reversal and how to use naloxone. To date, over 150,000 doses of naloxone have been distributed and over 26,000 overdoses have been reversed. For more information about naloxone and how to reverse an opioid overdose, visit the Overdose Resources section.
Naloxone (brand name Narcan) temporarily blocks the effects of opioids in someone who is overdosing. Since the 1990s, community-based programs have trained laypeople on overdose reversal and how to use naloxone. To date, over 150,000 doses of naloxone have been distributed and over 26,000 overdoses have been reversed. For more information about naloxone and how to reverse an opioid overdose, visit the Overdose Resources section.
Nationally42,000 people in the United States died of an opioid overdose in 2016.
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PennsylvaniaThere were 2,235 opioid-related overdose deaths in Pennsylvania in 2016. Overdose death rates are higher in Pennsylvania than the rest of the United States.
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Philadelphia1,217 people died of opioid overdoses in Philadelphia in 2017, up 34% from 909 deaths in 2016.
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Sources: Centers for Disease Control, National Institute on Drug Abuse, Philadelphia Department of Public Health