Public Health
Update
A Look at the Opioid Crisis In San Joaquin County By Kismet Baldwin, MD and Daniel H. Kim Jr., MPH, MCHES
Over the past three years, the opioid epidemic in the United States has been in the forefront of the news. The U.S. Health and Human Services Agency declared the opioid crisis as a “Public Health Emergency.� The U.S. Surgeon General issued an advisory on naloxone, recommending that more individuals including family, friends, and those who are personally at risk for opioid overdose keep the opioid reversing drug on hand. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued its Guideline for Prescribing Opioids for Chronic Pain in 2016 and has subsequently updated data to alert public health and health care professionals about developments in the evolving opioid overdose epidemic.
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SAN JOAQUIN PHYSICIAN
WINTER 2019