An Ohio county will distribute 30,000 doses of a drug used to reverse opioid overdoses

By Katie Zezima

Hamilton County, Ohio, will distribute 30,000 doses of an overdose-reversing drug to try to stop a rash of deaths that has besieged the area.

In what is believed to be the first program and clinical study of its kind in the country, the county will partner with hospitals, jails, faith-based groups and syringe exchanges that will distribute the medication, naloxone. The goal is to get it as close to people who are using drugs as possible to save their lives should they overdose.

Officials will gather and analyze data to answer this question: What would happen to the rate of opioid-related overdose deaths if a community were to be completely saturated with naloxone?

"The bottom line here," said Hamilton County Health Commissioner Tim Ingram, "is this is about saving people's lives and giving them a second and third chance at life and getting them into treatment so they can be treated for this disease of opioid addiction."

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