Colorado’s health department says orders for free doses of the overdose-reversing drug Naloxone (nuh-LOX-own) have tripled in just one year. The department says that program appears to be a key reason that deaths due to fentanyl are finally plateauing in the state…
(Naloxone Fighting Fentanyl wrap :48)
Health workers say, however, their job is far from finished. When fentanyl first came to Colorado, its dangers weren’t well-known. But it didn’t take long for health officials to take notice…
230915 A Guerrero- no one knew :07 Q:…such an issue…
Andres Guerrero manages the department’s group that tries to save people who overdose. He adds that for the first time last year, fentanyl deaths in Colorado leveled off a bit. He thinks one reason may be that more people are asking his office for Naloxone, to counteract it…
230915 A Guerrero- requests tripled :05 Q:…by 3 times…
He says lately, the state’s seeing more requests for free Naloxone doses, from schools– as many as 80 last year compared to just 3 in 2021. Colorado isn’t seeing its rate of fentanyl deaths go down, though, and officials like Guerrero don’t know yet if the current plateau will continue.
TAG– The state health department saw the number of deaths from fentanyl use and overdoses go up starting back in 2017, with 81 people dying. In 2021, only 4 years later, that drug took 912 lives in the state…