Heroin epidemic puts pressure on schools to get antidote

http://news.yahoo.com/amid-heroin-scourge-schools-stock-overdose-antidote-134340516.html

By MICHELLE R. SMITH
Sept. 11, 2015

The heroin epidemic that has been taking the lives of teenagers for years is creeping into even younger age groups and putting pressure on the nation's schools to keep a fast-acting overdose antidote within reach of every nurse and teacher.

Although overdoses at school are rare, nurses are increasingly thinking of the drug naloxone as an essential part of their first-aid kits. Administered via syringe or a nasal spray, it works almost immediately to get an overdose patient breathing again, and it does not create a high or have major side effects.

The National Association of School Nurses wants all schools to keep the antidote on hand.

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Rebecca King said she has observed substance abuse as a nurse in a K-8 school in Delaware. Seeing a child collapsed on the floor is the "worst nightmare" of every school nurse, she said.

"Naloxone saves lives," King said. "It can really be the first step toward recovery."

Heroin overdose deaths in the United States nearly quintupled from 2001 to 2013. More than 70 percent of overdose deaths relating to prescription drugs in 2013 involved opioid painkillers — a class of drugs that includes heroin, oxycodone, codeine, fentanyl and morphine, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

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Overdoses at school are uncommon but not unheard of.

A survey of 81 Rhode Island school nurses who participated in a naloxone training program last year found that 43 percent of high school nurses who responded reported that students in their schools were abusing opioids, according to statistics released by the state health department. Fifteen said they had to call 911 at least once in the past three years for suspected student substance use or overdose.

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