US health chief says overdose

Ricardo Alonso-zaldivar and Carla K. Johnson, Associated Press

Updated

1:13 pm PDT, Tuesday, October 23, 2018

WASHINGTON (AP) – The number of U.S. drug polio epidemic, health secretary Alex Azar said Tuesday, bailout it's too soon to declare victory.

"We are so far from the end of the epidemic, but we are perhaps at the end of the beginning," said the Milken Institute think tank.

Confronting the opioid epidemic has been the rare issue uniting Republicans and Democrats in a politically divided nation. President provides Barack Obama. More money followed this year under President Donald Trump. And tomorrow Trump is expected to sign bipartisan legislation passed this month that increases access to treatment, among other steps.

More than 70,000 people died of drug overdoses last year, according to preliminary numbers released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention this summer- a 10 percent increase from 2016. Health and Human Services – the department Azar heads – is playing a central role in the government's response.

In his speech Azar suggests that multi-pronged efforts to bring the epidemic under control are paying off. He ticked off statistics showing increases in buprenorphine and naltrexone medications. There's strong evidence of backing medication-assisted treatment, when used alongside counseling and ongoing support. He also noted the fact that he has been referred to the overdose-reversing drug naloxone, and has published a report on the subject of misusing prescription drugs.

Azar said that towards the end of last year and the beginning of this year, the number of deaths "has begun to plateau." They are not pointing that they are going down, but they are appearing to be rising at a slower rate than previously seen.

Earlier this month, the CDC released figures – also preliminary – that appear to show a slowdown in overdose deaths in late 2017 and the first three months of this year. From December to March, the figures show that the pace of growth over the previous 12 months has slowed down from 10 percent to 3 percent, according to the preliminary CDC figures.

Despite the slowdown, the nation is still in the midst of the deadliest drug overdose epidemic in its history. Opioids were involved in most of the deaths, killing nearly 48,000 people last year.

While prescribing opioid and heroin deaths appear to be leveling off, fentanyl involving deaths, cocaine and methamphetamines are on the rise. Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid much more powerful than heroin, used as additive in street drugs.

Advocates for people who are struggling with addiction "Even if we are beginning to make a dent in opioid deaths, we still have a very significant problem in this country with addiction, and with the hopelessness and despair so many communities feel," said Chuck Ingoglia, senior vice president at the National Council. for Behavioral Health.

In President Barack Obama's last year in office, his administration secured a commitment to expand and provide $ 1 trillion in grants to states. Trump the epidemic opioid a national emergency. Two major funding bills have passed under his watch. While Trump got headlines with his call for the death penalty against major drug dealers, his administration favored Obama.

The Expanding Medicaid in Obama's Affordable Care Act has also played a critical role, paying for low-income adults to go into treatment. A recent Associated Press reported that they are more expansive in the treatment of cancer. Trump tried to repeal the Medicaid expansion, but failed.

Advocates for treatment that they are pleased with the fact that they are more But they say the U.S. has a long way to go build what they call an "infrastructure of care," a system that incorporates prevention, treatment and recovery.

In an interview with The Associated Press this summer, a CDC expert said the overdose death numbers seem to be shifting for the better, but it's too soon to draw firm conclusions.

Month-to-month data show a leveling off in the number of deaths, said Bob Anderson, a senior statistician with the National Center for Health Statistics. However, these numbers are considered preliminary, since death investigations have been completed in all cases.

"It appears that we can reach a decline," said Anderson. "This reminds me of what we saw with HIV in the '90s."

Final numbers for 2018 will not be available until the end of next year.

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AP Medical Writer Carla K. Johnson reported from Seattle.

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On the internet:

CDC drug overdose deaths dashboard – https://tinyurl.com/y75vu2dv