Health
Narcan vending machines are the latest weapon against opioid overdoses
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Merchandising machines that distribute lifesaving pictures of Narcan characterize the newest effort to fight the wave of opioid overdose deaths plaguing the nation.
Throughout the U.S., cities together with San Diego, Las Vegas and New York are putting in merchandising machines and locker kiosks stocked with nasal sprays that include naloxone, a medicine that can be utilized in emergencies for somebody who has overdosed on opioids, together with fentanyl.
Also known as Narcan, the spray medicine can carry again somebody from the brink of demise, immediately enabling them to breathe.
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“I’d say it’s fairly efficient. It has been accessed almost 400 instances since it has been put in. I am most likely out restocking it twice every week,” Charlie Nolan, a hurt discount specialist with the Metropolis of Philadelphia’s Division of Public Well being, instructed Fox Information.
This Narcan merchandising locker was not too long ago put in in entrance of the Blackwell Library in West Philadelphia. The town has plans to put in a second tower on Market Road later this 12 months.
(Fox Information)
The town company not too long ago put in a naloxone tower in entrance of the Blackwell Library within the West Philadelphia neighborhood.
“I believe we’re reaching a fairly good variety of folks that both did not have entry to it earlier than, did not know the place to get it or might need been uncomfortable speaking to somebody to get it,” Nolan mentioned.
The tower holds a complete of 44 Narcan pictures.
“I believe it has been very efficient in getting naloxone into the palms of extra folks.”
Every of the 22 lockers comprises a package with two doses of Narcan Nasal Spray, a face protect for rescue respiratory, gloves and a fast information on tips on how to administer the shot.
Nolan says he restocks the kiosk usually.
“We get a good quantity of individuals finishing the survey that is obtainable to tackle there as nicely,” he says. “I believe it has been very efficient in getting naloxone into the palms of extra folks.”
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Because it was put in in February of this 12 months, the tower has been accessed almost 400 instances.
Of these, almost half of the customers stuffed out an nameless survey that collects their zip code, gender and ethnicity.
Andrew Finest, director of the Division of Public Well being, mentioned the division is unable to find out what number of of those doses have been used to avoid wasting somebody from an overdose — however he believes the pilot program is efficient.
“Persons are forgetting that people are overdosing of their houses,” Finest instructed Fox Information. “So, accessing that lifesaving medicine — it could be tough to quantify, however we all know that people are accessing the naloxone and utilizing it.”
A hurt discount specialist for the Philadelphia Division of Public Well being helps a lady get hold of a package with two doses of Narcan nasal spray.
(Fox Information)
The pilot program for this locker is a part of a wider initiative to distribute lifesaving Narcan all through a metropolis that has been hit notably laborious by the opioid disaster.
In 2020, town recorded over 1,200 overdose deaths. The town estimates information will present a rise in 2021.
The Philadelphia Division of Public Well being additionally gives hurt discount coaching with fentanyl testing strips and instructs folks on tips on how to administer Narcan pictures along with dependancy restoration therapies.
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“I believe it is crucial as a result of as we’re seeing with simply the developments and what’s taking place, we’ve not finalized the numbers for 2021, however we will already estimate that [overdose deaths] might probably be increased,” Finest mentioned.
“A person simply goes and hits B7 and the package drops out after which they go on their method.”
“So, we need to ensure that we offer this lifesaving medicine wherever we will to all totally different teams of individuals and all various kinds of communities.”
Plans are already within the works to put in a second tower close to the intersection of sixtieth and Market streets, and the division is hoping to put in extra in the event that they proceed to show efficient.
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With over 100,000 overdose deaths throughout the U.S. in 2021 alone, based on a latest CDC report, many cities and different municipalities throughout the nation have been on the lookout for methods to offer simpler entry to lifesaving Narcan to decrease these numbers in 2022.
In Michigan, Wayne State College is putting in 15 machines throughout the state, together with on its campus in Detroit.
A program operated by Wayne State College in Detroit has put in a complete of 15 machines throughout the state, together with by itself campus.
(Wayne State College)
The free kiosks appear to be a extra conventional merchandising machine and may be accessed anonymously by anybody who wants the overdose reversal drug.
“For our program, it doesn’t require any fee or any form of entry identification,” Matt Costello, this system supervisor for the Heart for Behavioral Well being and Justice at Wayne State College, instructed Fox Information.
“The fee mechanism has been shut off on all of the machines that we have distributed. So, a person simply goes and hits B7 and the package drops out after which they go on their method.”
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Costello mentioned this system was modeled after an initiative launched by the Los Angeles County Jail system, the place merchandising machines stocked with Narcan have been put in.
“We wished to make Narcan obtainable to people as they have been launched from the jail,” Costello mentioned.
“The information reveals us that the dangers of overdose post-incarceration are terribly excessive. So we have positioned eight of the machines in county jails, seven in group settings, like a hurt discount company or different kinds of remedy amenities the place they will distribute the Narcan in a extra environment friendly and simple method.”
Wayne State’s Narcan merchandising machine program spreads throughout Michigan.
(Wayne State College)
Wayne State has utilized for a grant with the Michigan Division of Well being and Human Companies that can enable it to buy and set up 20 extra machines all through the state this October.
Thus far, Costello says over 19,000 particular person doses of Narcan have been distributed by the 15 machines throughout the state.
“It is by no means been as dangerous as it’s now. And sadly, it is most likely going to get so much worse earlier than it will get higher,” Jim Crotty, a former deputy chief of employees for the Drug Enforcement Administration mentioned in an interview with Fox Information.
“That is in contrast to something we have seen earlier than. Artificial opioids, particularly fentanyl, have contaminated the drug provide. It may be present in nearly every part today. And that is what’s driving this spike in overdose deaths.”
“Definitely, we do not need to see extra People dying.”
He added, “We needs to be carpet-bombing our cities with naloxone. That is how dire this disaster is.”
Crotty mentioned he believed that whereas these merchandising machines could possibly be efficient in distributing doses of Narcan to these in want, it will present solely a stopgap measure for the bigger situation of drug dependancy and abuse.
“That is definitely the quickest, best factor we will do to attempt to decrease the overdose demise price,” he mentioned. “However once more, that is simply step one in fixing the true downside, which is illicit drug use and drug trafficking. Merchandising machines and Narcan aren’t going to do this for us.”
He additionally mentioned, “It is actually the illicit medicine themselves which might be the issue. I believe that is the place we needs to be focusing our efforts. Definitely, we do not need to see extra People dying.”
Deaths from bombs and other traumatic injuries during the first nine months of the war in Gaza may have been underestimated by more than 40 percent, according to a new analysis published in The Lancet.
The peer-reviewed statistical analysis, led by epidemiologists at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, used modeling in an effort to provide an objective third-party estimate of casualties. The United Nations has relied on the figure from the Hamas-led Ministry of Health, which it says has been largely accurate, but which Israel criticizes as inflated.
But the new analysis suggests the Hamas health ministry tally is a significant undercount. The researchers concluded that the death toll from Israel’s aerial bombardment and military ground operation in Gaza between October 2023 and the end of June 2024 was about 64,300, rather than the 37,900 reported by the Palestinian Ministry of Health.
The estimate in the analysis corresponds to 2.9 percent of Gaza’s prewar population having been killed by traumatic injury, or one in 35 inhabitants. The analysis did not account for other war-related casualties such as deaths from malnutrition, water-borne illness or the breakdown of the health system as the conflict progressed.
The study found that 59 percent of the dead were women, children and people over the age of 65. It did not establish what share of the reported dead were combatants.
Mike Spagat, an expert on calculating casualties of war who was not involved in this research, said the new analysis convinced him that Gaza casualties were underestimated.
“This is a good piece of evidence that the real number is higher, probably substantially higher, than the Ministry of Health’s official numbers, higher than I had been thinking over the last few months,” said Dr. Spagat, who is a professor at Royal Holloway College at the University of London.
But the presentation of precise figures, such as a 41 percent underreported mortality, is less useful, he said, since the analysis actually shows the real total could be less than, or substantially more. “Quantitatively, it’s a lot more uncertain than I think comes out in the paper,” Dr. Spagat said.
The researchers said their estimate of 64,260 deaths from traumatic injury has a “confidence interval” between 55,298 and 78,525, which means the actual number of casualties is likely in that range.
If the estimated level of underreporting of deaths through June 2024 is extrapolated out to October 2024, the total Gazan casualty figure in the first year of the war would exceed 70,000.
“There is an importance to war injury deaths, because it speaks to the question of whether the campaign is proportional, whether it is, in fact, the case that sufficient provisions are made to to avoid civilian casualties,” said Francesco Checchi, an epidemiologist with an expertise in conflict and humanitarian crises and a professor at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine who was an author on the study. “I do think memorializing is important. There is inherent value in just trying to come up with the right number.”
The analysis uses a statistical method called capture-recapture analysis, which has been used to estimate casualties in other conflicts, including civil wars in Colombia and Sudan.
For Gaza, the researchers drew on three lists: The first is a register maintained by the Palestinian Ministry of Health, which mainly comprises the dead in hospital morgues and estimates of the number of unrecovered people buried in rubble. The second is deaths reported by family or community members through an online survey form the ministry established on Jan. 1, 2024, when the prewar death registration system had broken down. It asked Palestinians inside and outside Gaza to provide names, ages, national ID number and location of death for casualties. The third source was obituaries of people who died from injuries that were published on social media, which may not include all of the same biographical details and which the researchers compiled by hand.
The researchers analyzed these sources to look for individuals who appear on multiple lists of those killed. A high level of overlap would have suggested that few deaths were uncounted; the low amount they found suggested the opposite. The researchers used models to calculate the probability of each individual appearing on any of the three lists.
“Models enable us to actually estimate the number of people who have not been listed at all,” Dr. Checchi said. That, combined with the listed number, gave the analysts their total.
Patrick Ball, director of research at the Human Rights Data Analysis Group, and a statistician who has conducted similar estimates of violent deaths in conflicts in other regions, said the study was strong and well reasoned. But he cautioned that the authors may have underestimated the amount of uncertainty caused by the ongoing conflict.
The authors used different variations of mathematical models in their calculations, but Dr. Ball said that rather than presenting a single figure — 64,260 deaths — as the estimate, it may have been more appropriate to present the number of deaths as a range from 47,457 to 88,332 deaths, a span that encompasses all of the estimates produced by modeling the overlap among the three lists.
“It’s really hard to do this kind of thing in the middle of a conflict,” Dr. Ball said. “It takes time, and it takes access. I think you could say the range is larger, and that would be plausible.”
While Gaza had a strong death registration process before the war, it now has only limited function after the destruction of much of the health system. Deaths are uncounted when whole families are killed simultaneously, leaving no one to report, or when an unknown number of people die in the collapse of a large building; Gazans are increasingly buried near their homes without passing through a morgue, Dr. Checchi said.
The authors of the study acknowledged that some of those assumed dead may in fact be missing, most likely taken as prisoners in Israel.
Roni Caryn Rabin and Lauren Leatherby contributed reporting.
Dementia cases in the U.S. are expected to double by 2060, with an estimated one million people diagnosed per year, according to a new study led by Johns Hopkins University and other institutions.
Researchers found that Americans’ risk of developing dementia after age 55 is 42%, double the risk that has been identified in prior studies, a press release stated.
For those who reach 75 years of age, the lifetime risk exceeds 50%, the study found.
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Women face a 48% average risk and men have a 35% risk, with the discrepancy attributed to women living longer than men.
Dementia cases in the U.S. are expected to double by 2060, with an estimated one million people diagnosed per year. (iStock)
The study, which was published in the journal Nature Medicine on Jan. 13, analyzed data from the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities Neurocognitive Study (ARIC-NCS), which has tracked the cognitive and vascular health of nearly 16,000 adults since 1987.
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“Our study results forecast a dramatic rise in the burden from dementia in the United States over the coming decades, with one in two Americans expected to experience cognitive difficulties after age 55,” said study senior investigator and epidemiologist Josef Coresh, MD, PhD, who serves as the founding director of the Optimal Aging Institute at NYU Langone, in the release.
Understanding risk factors
“One of the main reasons for the increase is that great medicine and tecnological advances are keeping us alive longer and age is a risk factor for dementia,” Dr. Marc Siegel, clinical professor of medicine at NYU Langone Health and Fox News senior medical analyst, told Fox News Digital.
“Obesity is associated with inflammation, diabetes and high blood pressure, which are all independent risk factors for dementia.”
In addition to aging, other risk factors include genetics, obesity, hypertension, diabetes, unhealthy diets of ultraprocessed foods, sedentary lifestyles and mental health disorders, the release said.
“We have an obesity epidemic with over 45% adults obese in the U.S.,” Siegel noted. “Obesity is associated with inflammation, diabetes and high blood pressure, which are all independent risk factors for dementia.”
“And as an unhealthy population, we also have more heart disease, and atrial fibrillation is a risk factor for cognitive decline,” he added.
Dementia risk was found to be higher among people who have a variant of the APOE4 gene, which has been linked to late-onset Alzheimer’s disease. Black adults also have a higher risk.
Researchers found that Americans’ risk of developing dementia after age 55 is 42%, double the risk that has been identified in prior studies. (iStock)
Research has shown that the same interventions used to prevent heart disease risk could also prevent or slow down dementia, the study suggested.
“The pending population boom in dementia cases poses significant challenges for health policymakers in particular, who must refocus their efforts on strategies to minimize the severity of dementia cases, as well as plans to provide more health care services for those with dementia,” said Coresh.
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What needs to change?
Professor Adrian Owen, PhD, neuroscientist and chief scientific officer at Creyos, a Canada-based company that specializes in cognitive assessment and brain health, referred to the increase in dementia cases as a “tidal wave.”
“This new study’s anticipated surge in dementia cases underscores the urgent need for early and accurate detection,” he told Fox News Digital.
“By catching issues early, we give people the power to make lifestyle adjustments, seek available treatments and plan their futures with clarity.”
“By identifying cognitive decline at its earliest stages, we have an opportunity to intervene before patients and families bear the full weight of the disease.”
Owen recommends conducting regular cognitive assessments as part of routine check-ups to proactively identify early signs of cognitive decline.
“By catching issues early, we give people the power to make lifestyle adjustments, seek available treatments and plan their futures with clarity,” he said.
“By identifying cognitive decline at its earliest stages, we have an opportunity to intervene before patients and families bear the full weight of the disease.” (iStock)
Maria C. Carrillo, PhD, chief science officer and medical affairs lead for the Alzheimer’s Association in Chicago, said there is an “urgent need” to address the global crisis of Alzheimer’s disease and dementia.
To help keep the aging brain healthy, the Alzheimer’s Association published its report 10 Healthy Habits for Your Brain. Some of the tips are listed below.
For more Health articles, visit www.foxnews.com/health
– Participate in regular physical activity.
– Learn new things throughout your life and engage your brain.
– Get proper nutrition — prioritize vegetables and leaner meats/proteins, along with foods that are less processed and lower in fat.
– Avoid head injury (protect your head).
– Have a healthy heart and cardiovascular system — control blood pressure, avoid diabetes or treat it if you have it, manage your weight and don’t smoke.
Research has shown that the same interventions used to prevent heart disease risk could also prevent or slow down dementia. (iStock)
The research was funded by the National Institutes of Health.
Fox News Digital reached out to the researchers for additional comment.
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