Saving Lives for a Better Tomorrow –
Dec. 22, 2019 – Grown out of the need to stop blood-borne diseases like HIV, the needle-exchange program handed out 1,452 Narcan kits, the brand name for naloxone. And that’s just through 2018, according to a report to county supervisors last week. So far in 2019, another 1,554 kits were distributed, and 356 successful reversals saved lives, program administrator Matt Pennon said, who’d just compiled the numbers for a grant request to the state.
The distribution of naloxone — administered as a nasal spray — skyrocketed from 282 in 2017 to 1,053 in 2018, said Joy Kane, senior epidemiologist at County Public Health. It reversed 101 overdoses in 2017 and 308 in 2018 through the program, she said. (Medical personnel and first responders also administer naloxone, she said.) Comparatively, 32 and 31 county residents died of opioid overdose in 2017 and 2018, respectively, Kane said, less than half of heroin and roughly half of either fentanyl or prescription opioids, though many overdoses occurred from a combination of drugs. Pennon has headed the program for the past two months, visiting Lompoc on Tuesday, Santa Maria on Wednesday, and Santa Barbara on Thursday. He said he was shocked by how broad a swath of the community he’s met. “This opioid epidemic we’re dealing with doesn’t just look at one gender or race or ethnicity.” Ages range from twenty-somethings to 40-, 50-, and 60-year-olds, he said, all races and ethnicities, men and women, but very few trans clients.
