An Even Deadlier Opioid Hits the Streets
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WH
In a
September 2, 2016
NPR
post by
Jennifer Ludden:
A powerful drug that's normally used to tranquilize elephants is being blamed for a record spike in drug overdoses in the Midwest. Officials in Ohio have declared a public health emergency, and the U.S.
Drug Enforcement Administration says communities everywhere should be on alert for
carfentanil.
WIM
The synthetic opioid is 100 times more potent than
fentanyl, the prescription painkiller that led to the death earlier this year of the pop star
Prince. Fentanyl itself can be up to 50 times more deadly than heroin.
In the past few years, traffickers in illegal drugs increasingly have substituted fentanyl for heroin and other opioids. Now carfentanil is being sold on American streets, either mixed with heroin or pressed into pills that look like prescription drugs. Many users don't realize that they're buying carfentanil. And that has deadly consequences.
"Instead of having four or five overdoses in a day, you're having these 20, 30, 40, maybe even 50 overdoses in a day," says
Tom Synan, who directs the
Hamilton County Heroin Coalition Task Force in Southwest Ohio.
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Is New Alzheimer's Drug a Game Changer?
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WH
Susan Scutti, in a
9.1.16
CNN
post, reports:
An experimental drug shattered and removed toxic plaques in the brains of patients with early-stage Alzheimer's disease, researchers said <9.1.16>...
Given to patients once a month for a year, infusions of the
 drug
aducanumab cleared the brain of the deposits, which experts believe play a crucial role in disrupting cellular processes and blocking communication among nerve cells...Cambridge, Massachusetts-based
Biogen developed the drug aducanumab and funded the study...
WIM
According to Ms. Scutti:
Although most aging brains contain some plaques, the brains of Alzheimer's patients tend to have much more. The disease, the most common form of dementia, has no cure, although some treatments are available to alleviate symptoms. Treatments to slow the progression or reverse it have not panned out.
..."Confirmation of a cognitive benefit <resulting from aducanumab treatment> would be a game-changer," according to
Eric M. Reiman, Executive Director of the
Banner Alzheimer's Institute in Phoenix.
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Florida's Lonely Fight Against Zika
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WH
Caroline Chen and
Michael Smith reporting for
Bloomberg on
9.1.16:
In February the
White House asked
Congress for $1.9 billion to fund the development of a vaccine and fight mosquitoes.
House and
Senate Republicans crafted a $1.1 billion plan that also limited funding for
Planned Parenthood and eased pesticide regulations.
Senate Democrats balked. Then Congress went on recess for August, right when Miami had to deal with the specter of a
Zika epidemic.
WIM
According to the authors:
Despite the prospect of a potentially devastating viral outbreak, gridlock has hobbled the federal response and left the burden of fighting Zika almost entirely on the back of state and local governments.
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| About Us |
Florida Health Industry Week in Review is published every Monday by
FHIcommunications.
Each Monday morning we share the top healthcare headlines of the previous week and summarize
What Happened (WH) and
Why It Matters (WIM).
To learn how you can join our team of editorial contributors, contact
Jeffrey Herschler.
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