White House Urges All US Schools to Stock Naloxone
The White House is urging all schools to carry the emergency overdose reversal drug naloxone and train students and faculty on how to administer it.
A letter from the US education department and the White House’s national drug control policy office, first obtained by Axios, urged schools to “focus on measures to prevent youth drug use and ensure that every school has naloxone and has prepared its students and faculty to use it.
According to an education department spokesperson, the letter will be sent to every state education agency, intergovernmental groups, and local, state and national education associations, Axios reports.
The study also found that the median monthly overdose deaths among persons between 10 and 19 years old increased 109% from July–December 2019 to July–December 2021.
Moreover, the study found that potential bystanders were present during two-thirds of overdose deaths among adolescents but only 30% of the deaths had evidence that naloxone was administered.
Naloxone is medication approved by the Federal Drug Administration (FDA), which is designed to rapidly reverse an opioid overdose from drugs such as heroin, oxycodone, morphine or FYL. It is a temporary treatment and public health officials say urgent medical care should be sought as soon as possible in the event of an overdose, including where an emergency naloxone dose is given.
In March, the FDA approved the sale of Naloxone, a brand of naloxone, without a prescription, making it the first opioid reversal drug to be sold over the counter.
Recent reports reveal that schools across the country have started to stock up on Naloxone and allow students to bring their own supply of the overdose reversal drug.
In March, the Gazette in Iowa reported that schools in the state have started adding naloxone to their medical emergency tool kits after a state law passed last year that allows schools to stock and administer the drug in cases of opioid overdose.
In May, Axios reported a number of schools in the Washington DC area also added Naloxone to address the overdose crisis, with several school administrators and safety coordinators telling the outlet that they have emergency boxes of naloxone stocked in middle and high schools.
A CBS report in June revealed that New York City public school nurses have started to receive Naloxone training.
Meanwhile, high schools and school buses in Fresno, California, have supplies of Naloxone, ABC30 reported in August.
Source: The Guardian