State Physician General shows ease, impact of naloxone
Getting a dose of an opioid overdose reversal drug Wednesday at a North Huntingdon pharmacy took less than a minute for Dr. Rachel Levine, Pennsylvania Physician General.
She handed over her insurance card, Giant Eagle pharmacy manager Kelly Chappell outlined risk factors and symptoms of a drug overdose, and Levine stepped away with two doses of naloxone nasal spray.
“Anyone can go to a pharmacy ... and request a prescription for naloxone based on my standing order” signed in 2015, Levine told a gathering of media and local lawmakers inside the grocery store. “You do not need a prescription from your doctor.”
Two nasal spray doses of naloxone are covered by Medicaid and most private insurance carriers, Levine said.
Access to the drug was expanded to emergency responders and the general public in light of a national drug overdose epidemic. Police officers, firefighters, school officials and citizens have been arming themselves with kits of naloxone that they can use to save a life.
Levine called the epidemic a public health crisis, noting that about 10 people a day overdose and die in Pennsylvania.
“We want to get past the stigma associated with this condition,” she said.
Fatal overdoses in Westmoreland County continue to set records every year. Between 2012 and 2015, 377 people died, according to county coroner statistics. In 2016, 139 fatal overdoses have been confirmed, and 33 suspected cases are being investigated.
“These are real numbers,” county Commissioner Ted Kopas told the group. “These are real people, and these are people who could've been saved.”
Police officers in Pennsylvania report they have reversed more than 2,000 drug overdoses with naloxone, Levine said.
Norwin school officials haven't had to use any of the kits placed strategically around each of the district's buildings, Superintendent William Kerr said. Teachers there will undergo training soon, and kits have been made available to administrators, athletic trainers and others, he said.
“Of course, we hope that we never have to use the kits. ... But, as you know, we have very many public events,” he told the gathering.
Renatta Signorini is a Tribune-Review staff writer. Reach her at 724-837-5374 or rsignorini@tribweb.com.
