Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Carfentanil Intensifying Already Deadly Opioid Epidemic
The Star Tribune: 5 More Carfentanil-Related ODs Confirmed By Hennepin County Medical Examiner
Five more people have died from overdoses related to the powerful drug carfentanil, bringing the total to 10 deaths in Minnesota, the Hennepin County medical examiner confirmed Friday... Carfentanil, a powerful opioid new to the state, is said to be 10,000 times more potent than morphine and 100 times more potent than fentanyl, another synthetic opioid. (Chanen, 5/19)
NH Times Union: Manchester Officials Gather To Battle Carfentanil
Leaders in law enforcement, government, health care, public health, addiction recovery and emergency services huddled Friday over the lessons learned and the challenges that lie ahead following the carnage the new drug, carfentanil, caused in Manchester last month. Catholic Medical Center President and CEO Joe Pepe said his emergency room dealt with 10 overdoses in a single day, and in some cases overdoses required five times the usual dose of Narcan used to revive an unconscious addict. (Landrigan, 5/19)
In other news on the crisis —
NPR: Poll: Doctors Are Prescribing Back Pain Treatments That May Do More Harm Than Good
More than half of people say they've suffered lower back pain in the past year, according to the latest NPR-Truven Health Analytics Health Poll. That's not a surprise; low back pain is very common, and one of the biggest reasons that people seek medical care. But people told us that they're making very different choices in how they treat that pain, with some stark differences among age groups and income levels. (Shute, 5/19)
The Associated Press: Philadelphia To Mull Safe Injection Sites In Opioid Fight
A task force charged with outlining ways for Philadelphia to combat its opioid epidemic has recommended the city consider allowing safe sites, where drug users could inject heroin. Gov. Tom Wolf was on hand Friday as Mayor Jim Kenney outlined the task force’s findings. Kenney convened the 23-member group in January. (de Groot, 5/19)
The Washington Post: A Devastating Story Of Lives Ruined And Ended By Opioids
America’s opioid crisis is starkly laid out in the opening moments of HBO Documentary Films’ “Warning: This Drug May Kill You.” There’s a guy slumped over on a bus. A woman passed out on a street. Another guy collapsed backward across a bench. Then there’s a doctor, in a Perdue Pharma promotional video from 1999, explaining that “we doctors were wrong in thinking that opioids cannot be used long-term. They can be. And they should be.” (Hallett, 5/20)
