You may or may not be aware of the growing epidemic that is haunting the USA: that of the heroin overdose. Luckily, the government is aware of the growing amount of total users of heroin, as well as the total amount of irresponsible heroin users. Therefore, the government has decided to make available a home heroin overdose antidote kit. They have done this to alt the ever growing amount of fatalities relating to heroin overdose.
The product that the Food and Drugs Administration has authorized is called Evzio, which works by having someone inject an unresponsive opioid user with a drug called naloxone which then reverses the effect of the heroin overdose. This works by reversing the effect of the slowing-down of breathing which is caused by a heroin overdose.
Naloxone is a drug which has been used for many years by medical professionals, however this new scheme will make it available to users of the drug as well as their friends and their family members and other people close to them. The drug will require a prescription for the medication; however it will give loved ones a non-traumatic way to administer a potentially life-saving drug to a patient. This is in stark contrast to having to administer an adrenaline shot …show more content…
The Center for Disease Control and Prevention found in a 2010 report that an estimated total greater than sixteen thousand deaths every year were caused by heroin overdose or other abuse of opioids. Surprisingly, heroin overdose is not the main offender in this statistic. Lest you think this is a problem solely about people dying from bad choices using illegal drug uses, you should realize that the biggest category responsible for deaths by overdose was in the area of prescription painkillers. Opiates are routinely prescribed to everyday people, whether they are recovering heroin addicts or suffering from back pain or recovering from