News Coverage

Can Federal and Community Support Solve the Opioid Problem? (U.S. News & World Report)

May 18th, 2017

By May 18, more than 12,500 Americans had died from an opioid overdose in 2017 alone, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That's more than double the number of reported deaths from gun violence so far this year.

It's a staggering statistic, but opioid addiction is a problem without an easy, straightforward solution.

In order to address the crisis fully, steps need to be taken on both the supply and demand sides of the issue, says Dr. Leana Wen, Baltimore City's health commissioner and former emergency room doctor. And, she points out, there are other societal factors to consider.

"When we look at the data of where it is that people are dying of overdoses, where the rates of addiction have climbed most precipitously, those areas are also the ones that are hardest hit by unemployment, by housing instability, by individuals in communities with uncertain futures," Wen says. "This is an overall societal problem that we need to address."

Read the entire story. 

From Punishing Users to Treating a Disease (U.S. News & World Report)

May 18th, 2017

Second of three parts. Read part one: A Personal Look at a National Problem.

Opioid addiction takes a personal toll, but it also has countrywide consequences.

On an average day in the U.S., someone begins nonmedical use of opioids every 22 seconds; someone starts using heroin every two and a half minutes; and someone dies from opioid-related overdose every 16 minutes, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Fatal accidents involving both legal and illegal prescription drugs surpassed those involving alcohol in 2015, a new Governors Highway Safety Association study finds. And, according to the Federal Bureau of Prisons, 46.3 percent of federal inmates across the United States are serving time for drug-related offenses.

Opioid abuse has skyrocketed in the last 15 years, and the U.S. government has started to change its approach to the problem, transitioning from a "war on drugs" mentality that pegged users as criminals to efforts to treat people as victims suffering from a disease – a move that many think comes down to black vs. white.

Read the entire story.

A Personal Look at a National Problem (U.S News & World Report)

May 18th, 2017

It was fun. It made them feel good. It took away the pain.

Jim, Morgan, John, and Andrea never met. From different states, age groups, and backgrounds, it was unlikely they ever would. And yet they all were tempted by the same thing: opioids.

For Jim Stallings, and 91 Americans every day, it only took one more time.

Born and raised in Maryland, Stallings, his mother recalls, was funny and compassionate, always taking the side of the underdog. He loved fishing, grilling and tinkering with anything mechanical.

But in 1981, when he was 13, Stallings began taking prescription drugs at what were then called "fruit bowling" parties. These days they are known as "Skittles Parties," where teenagers raid their family medicine cabinets, dump whatever pills they find in a bowl and take them at random.

Read the entire story.

Gutting Medicaid will harm generations to come (Opinion Baltimore Sun)

May 15th, 2017

Elijah Cummings, Leana S. Wen, Kevin Lindamood

A bill to fundamentally change the way Americans purchase and receive health care passed the House of Representatives and is now waiting consideration in the Senate. The bill, which was opposed by nearly every major medical organization, threatens the health and well-being of millions of Americans with public and private insurance.

The bill would effectively gut Medicaid, the program that today, thanks to expansion under the Affordable Care Act(ACA), ensures health services for 74 million Americans, including nearly 1.3 million Marylanders. As leaders and frontline health professionals, we see daily how Medicaid saves lives and provides hope and stability, and our state must join a growing national effort to preserve it.

On Monday, we will join with leaders from the NAACP, Health Care Access Maryland, Health Care for All! and advocates around the state at a public forum to advance our work here in Maryland to save Medicaid. We start that work by making sure elected officials and fellow citizens alike know and understand the role of Medicaid in safeguarding health and life in Baltimore, Maryland and nationally.

Read entire op-ed.

Sen. Van Hollen says GOP backing off on treatment (WMAR)

May 15th, 2017

Right now five dozen addicts call the Tuerk house in West Baltimore their home and on this day, U.S. Senator Chris Van Hollen stops by to offer hope for the hundreds of people stuck on its waiting list.

Van Hollen and Baltimore City Health Commissioner Dr. Leana Wen toured the facility and listened to stories of hope from its residents at a time when hope for added treatment dollars is waning in Washington.

"Just yesterday, the U.S. Attorney General, Attorney General Sessions, decided to roll back some of the progress we've made at the federal level under the Obama administration where they were telling prosecutors to deal with substance abuse with more care and not simply locking people up," said Van Hollen.

It is a point not lost upon Baltimore's health commissioner who advocates treating addiction like a disease, not like a moral decision or crime.

Read the entire story. 

Microblading is popular but getting it done at a salon is illegal (ABC2 News)

May 12th, 2017

Baltimore City health officials are warning residents to do their research before paying for cosmetic tattooing.

Unlicensed Baltimore salons offering tattoo eyebrow services pose health risks (Baltimore Sun)

May 12th, 2017

Baltimore health officials are warning residents that it is illegal and a health hazard to get inked in eyebrows at salons.

Many people don't realize that the procedures, which involves using needles to draw eyebrows with permanent, semi-permanent or long-lasting make up is considered illegal, according to a release from the Baltimore City Health Department. The salons often market the procedure as "microblading".

The department regulates tattoo parlors because the process can lead to bacterial infections and the spread of diseases such as HIV. Tattooing of any kind for compensation may only be done in a licensed tattoo facility by artists who are registered with the health department. 

Read entire story.

AIDS Walk Baltimore raises $100,000 (Washington Blade)

May 12th, 2017

Some 600 attendees including volunteers participated in the annual AIDS Walk & Run Baltimore at The Maryland Zoo in Baltimore on May 7. The event raised nearly $100,000 to support Chase Brexton Health Care’s HIV/AIDS outreach and infectious disease and case management services, which provide critical HIV/AIDS care and prevention in Baltimore. 

Special guests included Baltimore City Health Commissioner Dr. Leana Wen; Chase Brexton President and CEO Patrick Mutch; emcee Chardelle Moore of Fox 45 Baltimore; with music by DJ Shay and the Baltimore Gay Men’s Chorus.

“In Baltimore City, 1 in 6 people who have HIV do not know that they are infected,” Wen said in a statement. “With our partners across the city, including Chase Brexton, we have made significant progress to increase testing, provide education, and connect people to treatment. We must continue this fight together and prevent and treat our family, friends, and community members.”

Read the entire story.

Carfentanil poses risk to Maryland's first responders (ABC 2 News)

May 10th, 2017

BALTIMORE, Md. - A synthetic opiate is responsible for four recent deaths in Maryland. Heroin and fentanyl killed hundreds in the last year but carfentanil is stronger than both and threatens the lives of its users as well as the people who come to their aid.

In the war on heroin, medics are on the front lines. They receive a daily barrage of calls for drug overdoses.

“I bet at this station they get about 10 a day for OD's,” said Rick Hoffman, president of IAFF Local 734 Baltimore firefighters.

Hoffman represents the first responders in the City with the most heroin-related deaths in the state. Three-hundred forty two people lost their lives in the first nine months of 2016.

...

“We know that fentanyl is being trafficked from other countries and being mixed in with heroin and other drugs without the person using the drugs knowing it, so it's possible that carfentanil can also follow a similar pattern and cause many more deaths,” said Baltimore City Health Commissioner Dr. Leana Wen.

Watch the entire story.

How Much Will Insurance Cost For Kids With Asthma Under Trumpcare? Costs May Go Up (Romper)

May 8th, 2017

On Thursday, the American Health Care Act passed the House of Representatives by a 217–213 vote, crossing the 216 threshold needed. Under the latest health care plan, premiums would likely increase rapidly for people with pre-existing conditions. Some of those people are kids. One extremely common chronic illness in children is asthma, and those children would probably be affected by a rise in costs as a result of asthma being included as a pre-existing condition, which are no longer covered under the American Health Care Act as they were under the Affordable Care Act. But how much will insurance cost for kids with asthma under Trumpcare?

Think Progress reported that, under the latest Republican health care bill, enrollees could face premium increases skyrocketing into the tens of thousands of dollars. In particular, the Center for American Progress found that people with asthma would face a premium surcharge of $4,340. And asthma doesn't just go away — it can be managed, and triggers can be identified to control them, but asthma is the leading cause of chronic illness in children, and it's not something that can be cured to eliminate those costs. 

TIME also reported on findings that noted people with asthma could have raised premiums under the AHCA. And since the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that 6.2 million children currently have asthma, those kids would likely face costs similar to the estimate made by the CAP.

#AHCA how do I explain to my 13 year old daughter that she will have trouble finding insurance because she has asthma.

— Jennifer Catron (@jcatron243) May 4, 2017

U.S. News & World Report reported that, under the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare, neither women or children could be denied coverage or charged more due to pre-existing conditions — including asthma. But that protection is not exactly the same under the AHCA. Instead, according to Dr. Leana Wen, Baltimore city health commissioner, "States could allow insurers to set much higher rates for patients who have a pre-existing condition. That's terrifying, because patients could in essence be priced out of coverage." So through no fault of their own, the parents of kids with asthma could face higher costs to have insurance coverage just because their child has a common illness that they can't control.

Read entire story.

Pages