ANNAPOLIS, MD (October 20, 2015)– Baltimore City Health Commissioner Dr. Leana Wen testified Tuesday before the Maryland State Joint Committee on Behavioral Health and Opioid Use Disorders to update the General Assembly on the recommendations provided by the Baltimore Mayor’s Heroin Treatment & Prevention Task Force Report and to urge the General assembly to provide support for the report’s recommendations.

“As an ER doctor, I have seen the devastation of heroin addiction firsthand, and as the city’s doctor, I have seen how heroin ties into the very fabric of Baltimore,” said Baltimore City Health Commissioner Dr. Leana Wen. “It is impossible to separate heroin use from the rampant health disparities that divide our city. Baltimore has been fighting the heroin epidemic for years, and we look forward to sharing the lessons we learned with our State partners and further collaborate to heal our communities.”

BALTIMORE, MD (October 14, 2015)–Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake and Health Commissioner Dr. Leana Wen joined elected officials, city representatives, and families from across Baltimore City today to celebrate six years of success in reducing infant mortality rates at an event honoring the B'more for Healthy Babies (BHB) initiative.

In 2009, Baltimore City had the fourth highest infant mortality rate in the nation. B'more for Healthy Babies was founded to ensure that all babies are born at a healthy weight, full-term and ready to thrive in healthy families. Since the program’s inception, Baltimore’s infant mortality rate has dropped by over 20 percent, hitting its lowest point ever recorded in 2012. Disparities between black and white infant deaths have also consistently decreased. As a result of B’More for Healthy Babies, the teen birth rates in the city have dropped by an unprecedented 32 percent.

BALTIMORE, MD (September 30, 2015)–Baltimore City Health Commissioner Dr. Leana Wen today announced plans to issue a “standing order” for naloxone, also called Narcan, a medication that completely reverses the effect of an opioid overdose. Under a change in state law that begins October 1, doctors in the state of Maryland affiliated with local health departments are now able to issue written standing orders that allow designated individuals, such as overdose response program trainees and pharmacists, to dispense naloxone without a doctor’s prescription.

With Dr. Wen’s standing order, Baltimore City will become first jurisdiction in Maryland to expand access to the opioid antidote.

BALTIMORE, MD (September 25, 2015)–The Baltimore City Health Department (BCHD) announced today that Baltimore City was awarded over $20 million in grant funding from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) to support efforts to reduce HIV infection among men who have sex with men (MSM) and transgender populations, with an emphasis on MSM of color. The two grants awarded to BCHD are part of $185 million in funding distributed by the CDC to respond to the severe burden of HIV among MSM and transgender men and women.

While new HIV infections are declining across the city–and nationwide–new infections are increasing among MSM and transgender persons in Baltimore. African American populations are particularity at-risk–84 percent of those living with HIV in Baltimore are African American.