Health News
- Cdc Report Finds Heroin Use Increased By 63 Percent Since 2002, With Greatest Increases Seen Among Women And Whites
Heroin use increased 63 percent and heroin-related overdose deaths nearly quadrupled since 2002, according to a report from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. As heroin use has increased, so have heroin-related overdose deaths....
- Free Overdose-reversal Kits Are Given To Kentucky Hospitals With The Highest Recent Rates Of Heroin-overdose Deaths
Kentucky hospitals with the highest rates of heroin overdose deaths are receiving funding for heroin/opiate overdose reversal kits, which will be provided free of charge to every treated and discharged overdose victim at the pilot project hospitals, according...
- Congress Is Taking On Opoid Abuse And The Nationwide Increase In Drug Overdoses
Federal officials have become increasingly concerned about the rapid increase in drug overdoses across the country. The House Energy and Commerce Committee, in a series of hearings on the topic, is looking at how states are dealing with this problem....
- Kentucky Led The Nation In Hepatitis C Cases In 2013; State's Rate Rose 357 Percent From 2007 To 2011
By Tim Mandell Kentucky Health News Kentucky had the nation's highest rate of hepatitis C in 2013, with 5.1 cases per every 100,000 people, says a report by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. As many as 3.5 million people...
- Prescription Drugs Killing More Women Than Ever; Kentucky Ties For Fifth For Its High Percentage Of Deaths
The ongoing national epidemic of addiction to prescription painkillers is spreading more quickly among women, and it is killing more women than ever before. Kentucky ties Utah for the fifth highest percentage of female deaths due to prescription-drug...
Health News
Deaths from drug overdoses and prescriptions for opiate treatment drugs are both rising, worrying state officials
Despite measures to discourage prescription drug abuse, Kentucky health officials report overdose deaths continue to rise and opioid treatment drugs are being prescribed "at alarming rates," Kevin Wheatley reports for cn|2's "Pure Politics."
A shift to cheaper, readily available heroin is partly to blame, Audrey Haynes, secretary of the Cabinet for Health and Family Services, told the legislature's Interim Joint Committee on Health and Welfare Wednesday.
Haynes told the committee that heroin overdose deaths in Kentucky increased 207 percent from 42 in 2011 to 129 in 2012; Kentucky ranks highest in hospital admissions for heroin abuse among surrounding states and the national average; more women age 18-44 in Kentucky die from drug overdoses than the U.S. average; and the state has shown a 165 percent increase in neonatal abstinence syndrome in newborns from 2008 to 2013.
Another issue, Wheatley writes, is that opiate treatment drugs like buprenorphine, which can be prescribed by physicians, have been seized by police in arrests at higher rates, creating a concern among health officials that it is being used illegally.
The medical director of the Department for Medicaid Services, John Langefeld, told Wheately that data show a 241 percent increase in buprenorphine prescriptions for Medicaid recipients from January 2012 to this May and that police seizures of this drug have increased "threefold" since tougher laws on prescription drug abuse took effect in July 2012.
A shift to cheaper, readily available heroin is partly to blame, Audrey Haynes, secretary of the Cabinet for Health and Family Services, told the legislature's Interim Joint Committee on Health and Welfare Wednesday.
Haynes told the committee that heroin overdose deaths in Kentucky increased 207 percent from 42 in 2011 to 129 in 2012; Kentucky ranks highest in hospital admissions for heroin abuse among surrounding states and the national average; more women age 18-44 in Kentucky die from drug overdoses than the U.S. average; and the state has shown a 165 percent increase in neonatal abstinence syndrome in newborns from 2008 to 2013.
Another issue, Wheatley writes, is that opiate treatment drugs like buprenorphine, which can be prescribed by physicians, have been seized by police in arrests at higher rates, creating a concern among health officials that it is being used illegally.
The medical director of the Department for Medicaid Services, John Langefeld, told Wheately that data show a 241 percent increase in buprenorphine prescriptions for Medicaid recipients from January 2012 to this May and that police seizures of this drug have increased "threefold" since tougher laws on prescription drug abuse took effect in July 2012.
- Cdc Report Finds Heroin Use Increased By 63 Percent Since 2002, With Greatest Increases Seen Among Women And Whites
Heroin use increased 63 percent and heroin-related overdose deaths nearly quadrupled since 2002, according to a report from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. As heroin use has increased, so have heroin-related overdose deaths....
- Free Overdose-reversal Kits Are Given To Kentucky Hospitals With The Highest Recent Rates Of Heroin-overdose Deaths
Kentucky hospitals with the highest rates of heroin overdose deaths are receiving funding for heroin/opiate overdose reversal kits, which will be provided free of charge to every treated and discharged overdose victim at the pilot project hospitals, according...
- Congress Is Taking On Opoid Abuse And The Nationwide Increase In Drug Overdoses
Federal officials have become increasingly concerned about the rapid increase in drug overdoses across the country. The House Energy and Commerce Committee, in a series of hearings on the topic, is looking at how states are dealing with this problem....
- Kentucky Led The Nation In Hepatitis C Cases In 2013; State's Rate Rose 357 Percent From 2007 To 2011
By Tim Mandell Kentucky Health News Kentucky had the nation's highest rate of hepatitis C in 2013, with 5.1 cases per every 100,000 people, says a report by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. As many as 3.5 million people...
- Prescription Drugs Killing More Women Than Ever; Kentucky Ties For Fifth For Its High Percentage Of Deaths
The ongoing national epidemic of addiction to prescription painkillers is spreading more quickly among women, and it is killing more women than ever before. Kentucky ties Utah for the fifth highest percentage of female deaths due to prescription-drug...