The Kanawha-Charleston Health Department's harm reduction program has been steadily growing since its launch in December, and a recent donation of 200 naloxone auto-injectors will allow the agency to equip citizens with a tool that could save a life.
Dr. Michael Brumage, health officer for the health department, told the Kanawha-Charleston Board of Health Thursday that Kaleo Pharma, the company that donated more than 2,000 auto-injectors to the Cabell-Huntington Health Department earlier this year, had given the Kanawha health department 200 EVZIO naloxone auto-injector kits to distribute.
Naloxone, an opioid antagonist that reverses the symptoms of an overdose, causes no side effects on its own and cannot be abused.
Brumage said he is awaiting his dispensing license, and that the agency already has received naloxone training from Charles Babcock, an assistant professor at the Marshall University School of Pharmacy.
"These are pretty easy to use in case of an emergency," he said. "In an emergency where someone is turning blue in front of you, it could be easy to forget the kind of instructions that might accompany other kits."
On Wednesday, the Kanawha health department's harm reduction program saw 56 patients. Since December, the program has seen 245 people in more than 400 separate visits, and has dispensed more than 11,000 syringes, Brumage said.
So far, the health department has had one-third of those syringes returned, ensuring they will not be reused, and there has been an uptick in returns in recent weeks, Brumage said.
According to Brumage, the health department will likely dispense the injectors freely, although they are still considering what limits to put on the practice. The Cabell health department requires those interested in obtaining the drug to undergo an hour-long training on how to administer it.
"We can offer these to people who feel they are in need; we can offer them to addicts in the hope they could save someone," Brumage said. "We would be dispensing these to anyone concerned about anyone in their family or anyone they knew who might be at risk of an overdose."
Opiate overdoses kill by depressing the respiratory system, causing users to suffocate. A person who is overdosing is unresponsive, even to pain, and may have blue lips or fingertips and pinprick pupils. Naloxone itself doesn't have any adverse side effects, but it will cause withdrawal symptoms, and the drug only works to reverse an overdose cause by opiates - it will not help someone who has overdosed on cocaine, LSD, benzodiazepines, ecstasy, tranquilizers or marijuana.
Reach Lydia Nuzum at lydia.nuzum@wvgazettemail.com, 304-348-5189 or follow @lydianuzum on Twitter.