Safe injection sites receive support in face of opioid epidemic
On Jan. 23, 2017, Philadelphia city officials announced their support for supervised drug injection sites to combat the ongoing opioid epidemic, which has led to increased rates of infectious disease transmissions such as hepatitis C and HIV.
Additionally, there has been a marked increase in overdose fatalities related to opioid use, according to a recently published editorial by Jessie M. Gaeta, MD, and Melanie Racine, MPH, from the Boston Health Care for the Homeless Program.
“With the explosion of highly potent fentanyl and its analogs in the illicit drug supply, overdose fatalities are occurring with alarming frequency and speed — often within minutes or even seconds of injection, leaving little time for first responders to find and resuscitate victims,” Gaeta and Racine wrote.
