The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) Injury Center supports key components of the U.S. Health and Human Services (HHS) initiative aimed at reducing prescription opioid overdose as announced by Secretary Sylvia Burwell yesterday.
Prescription Drug Overdose a Leading Cause of Death
Deaths from drug overdose have risen steadily over the past two decades and have become the leading cause of injury death in the United States. Prescription opioids—a class of prescription drugs used to treat both acute and chronic pain – were involved in 37 percent of drug overdose deaths in 2013. Sales of these drugs nearly quadrupled from 1999 to 2013, and overdose deaths quadrupled in lockstep.
Evidence-Based Solutions to the Crisis
Addressing the prescription opioid overdose crisis requires broad and sustainable action, and CDC takes seriously its role in the coordinated federal response. Key strategies are based on evidence-informed interventions with the greatest potential for impact, including:
Developing training and education resources, including updated prescriber guidelines, to help health professionals make informed decisions for safe opioid prescribing.
Expanding use of Prescription Drug Monitoring Programs (PDMPs), electronic databases that track controlled substance prescriptions and support appropriate pain management.
Expanding state-level interventions that focus on prescription opioid overdose prevention efforts through the Prescription Drug Overdose Prevention for States program. The program will assist states in enhancing PDMPs, implementing innovative prevention efforts and safe prescribing practices.
The work of CDC’s Injury Center has an integral role in the coordinated federal response to combat the opioid crisis. The Secretary’s initiative focuses on additional priority areas through a Department wide effort:
Increasing access and use of naloxone, a life-saving drug that can reverse the effects of a prescription opioid overdose when timely administered.
Expanding the use of Medication-Assisted Treatment (MAT), an approach that combines the use of medication with counseling and behavioral therapies to treat substance use disorders.
Learn More
To learn more about CDC’s role in reducing prescription opioid overdose deaths as part of the HHS initiative:
Due to receiving a recall notice from its organic spinach supplier because of possible Listeria monocytogenes exposure, La Terra Fina is recalling the products outlined in the chart below. Following its voluntary recall of Organic Spinach Dip last Friday, La Terra Fina is expanding the recall to include these products that were manufactured on the same production equipment on the same day as the Organic Spinach Dip and are being recalled out of an abundance of caution.
Premium Swiss chocolatier Lindt & Sprüngli is voluntarily recalling one product lot of its 6.4 oz Chocolate Covered Raisin Bags and 6.4 oz Chocolate Covered Almond Bags sold in nine Lindt Chocolate Shop locations in the U.S. between January 23 and March 16, 2015. Lindt is issuing this voluntary recall due to concerns about the potential presence of undeclared hazelnuts.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration today expanded the approved use for Eylea (aflibercept) injection to treat diabetic retinopathy in patients with diabetic macular edema.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration today approved Anthrasil, Anthrax Immune Globulin Intravenous (Human), to treat patients with inhalational anthrax in combination with appropriate antibacterial drugs.
One in three older adults falls each year, yet less than half tell their health care provider. A new CDC/Medscape video commentary with CDC’s Dr. Grant Baldwin aims to help start this important conversation.
The video, part of CDC’s STEADI initiative, highlights three questions that health care providers can integrate into routine office visits with patients 65 and older:
Have you fallen in the past year?
Do you feel unsteady when standing or walking?
Do you worry about falling?
Using the tools in CDC’s STEADI initiative, the video then guides health care providers on screening, assessments, and proven interventions, such as:
Reviewing medications to ensure appropriate geriatric doses and reducing fall risk-increasing drugs.
A fall among an older adult can lead to injuries that reduce mobility, limit social interactions, decrease physical fitness, lower quality of life, and increase the risk of early death. Through STEADI, CDC is working to educate patients and health care providers about how to help keep older adults safe from falls, so they can stay healthy, active, and independent longer.
