Surgeon General Urges Everybody to Carry Opioid Overdose Antidote
IT’S COME TO THIS
As opioid crisis kills 115 Americans every day.
America’s top doctor has urged more Americans to start carrying an overdose antidote to help fight back against the nation’s spiraling opioid crisis. In remarks set for Thursday, Surgeon General Jerome Adams will say he wants people at risk of overdosing, as well as their friends and family, to start carrying the naloxone antidote and learn how to use it to save lives. Adams will also lay out the scale of the crisis facing the U.S., saying 42,000 Americans suffered fatal opioid overdoses in 2016. “Each day, we lose 115 Americans to an opioid overdose—that’s one person every 12.5 minutes,” Adams’ remarks state. “It is time to make sure more people have access to this lifesaving medication, because 77 percent of opioid overdose deaths occur outside of a medical setting and more than half occur at home.” Naloxone is available over-the-counter and can bring overdose victims back from near-death by restoring their breathing.
