Cheap, easy, and lifesaving - Naloxone treatment for overdose

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Cheap, easy, and lifesaving - Naloxone treatment for overdose

4 January 2013

by Daniel Wolfe, Public Health Program, Open Society Foundations

How much does it cost to save a life? That question got a clear and striking answer this week in the case of overdose from heroin in the United States. A study published in the Annals of Internal Medicine found that distribution of the overdose antidote naloxone—a safe, non-abusable, and inexpensive medicine—to one in five heroin users in the United States could prevent as many as 43,000 deaths. The cost of distribution would be equivalent to some of the cheapest, most effective, and most accepted medical interventions, like checking blood pressure at a doctor’s office.

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