Baltimore City running low on opioid overdose remedy (Baltimore Sun)

Monday Jun 19th, 2017

Baltimore health officials are running low on naloxone, the opioid overdose reversal drug used hundreds of times by bystanders in the last couple of years to save lives.

Dr. Leana Wen, the city health commissioner, said demand has jumped significantly along with the drug epidemic and the health department needs funding for more supplies.

"We are rationing," she said. "We're deciding who is at the highest risk and giving it to them."

The city has about 4,000 doses left to last until next May. The department will distribute them, two at a time, to residents, including IV drug users encountered by the city's needle exchange vans or by outreach workers in "hotspots," areas where a spate of overdoses recently occurred.

"If I had 10,000 doses and gave them to everyone who requested them, I'd run out in about two weeks," Wen said.

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