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NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – There is a new epidemic of hepatitis C, HIV, and other infections among opioid abuse epidemic, according to participants in a National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine Workshop.
There is an urgent need for actions to address this combined threat, they write in Annals of Internal Medicine,
"Opioid use disorder is like any other medical disorder, and through simple screening and starting medication treatment with the FDA- "Dr. Sandra A. Springer from Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut told Reuters Health by email. "For those who have a history of infection, then starting treatment for their disease, they can recover from their infectious diseases as well. Two for the price of one. "
Dr. Springer and colleagues from the National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine convened a workshop, "Integrating Infectious Disease Considerations with Response to Opioid Epidemic," to address these intersecting epidemics.
The participants agreed on five action steps:
-Action Step 1: all patients who are evaluated in medical settings for overdose, heart valve infections, blood poisoning, HIV, hepatitis C, and other serious infections should be screened for opioid use disorder using Rapid Opioid Dependence Screen.
-Action Step 2: FDA-approved medication for the treatment of FDA-approved medication.
-Action Step 3: Hospitals should be prepared for treatment after treatment.
-Action Step 4: hospitals, medical schools, physician badistant (PA), schools, nursing schools, and residency programs.
-Action Step 5: access to addiction care needs to be increased, as well as to provide effective medications for treatment opioid use disorder.
July 13th Annals of Internal Medicine.
"This is the biggest epidemic we have seen in this country, and we have the medications and the ability to fight this epidemic," Dr. Springer said. "The Ryan White CARE Act that" we are all clinicians and nurses, specialist physicians, physician badistants, and primary care physicians. "
"she said." It was a case in point of fact.
Dr. Yu-Hsiang Hsieh from Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland, who told us about these intersecting epidemics, told Reuters Health by email, "As an infectious disease and public health researcher in the emergency department. (ED) setting, in the past two years, EDs in Maryland overdoses, in addition to those who have died before arriving at the ED. "
" A call for selected federal Ryan White CARE Act would greatly badist state and local governments, and he said, "These are the things that people need to do," he said.
Videos and slides from the workshop are available from the National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine at bit.ly/2NgjJZ9.
SOURCE: bit.ly/2NeK3mC Annals of Internal Medicine, online July 13, 2018.
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