Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Inmates Are Dying With Disturbing Frequency From Opioid Withdrawal
In the days following her 18-year-old daughter鈥檚 first arrest on heroin charges, Stephanie Moyer took solace in thinking she would be safe in jail until she got into a treatment program. However, Victoria 鈥淭ori鈥 Herr sounded disoriented on a call home three days later. She feared she was dying and begged for something to drink, her mother said. Herr, who had a 10-bag-a-day habit, collapsed following days of severe vomiting and diarrhea at the Lebanon County Correctional Facility. She spent five days in the hospital, then died on Easter Sunday 2015. Her case is one of at least a half-dozen deaths nationwide during the last two years involving jail heroin withdrawal, and advocates fear the number will grow given the nation鈥檚 heroin crisis. (Dale, 7/11)
The program, recommended by the Orange County Heroin Task Force, will link him to addiction counseling, treatment after jail and therapy that includes a once-a-month injection of Vivitrol, a brand-name form of naltrexone. The non-addictive drug blocks the euphoric effects of heroin. (Hudak, 7/11)
Winning a mention of the opioid epidemic, which killed about 28,000 Americans in 2014, might not be too tough a goal were it not for the thousands of other people who want a few sentences of their own in the platforms on subjects from health care to criminal justice. (Keane, 7/12)
In U.S. medical schools, a total of nine hours is required in pain management training for doctors. That鈥檚 0.3% of total time in medical school and, to compare, veterinarian schools spend more than 500x more time spent learning to treat pain in animals. That鈥檚 according to a study conducted by Johns Hopkins in 2011 and cited by Dr. Michael Bottros, the director of acute pain service at Barnes-Jewish Hospital. (Moffitt, 7/11)
The latest numbers from the New Hampshire Office of the Chief Medical Examiner show that at least 161 people have fatally overdosed so far in 2016. Officials are anticipating that those numbers will continue to rise in the months ahead, and the state is projecting at least 494 overdose deaths by the end of the year. (McDermot, 7/11)
