Below are the opening lines of a news article on NPR, and a comment from me. Read online: https://www.npr.org/2023/04/12/1169345832/biden-says-fentanyl-xylazine-d...
--
The U.S. government issued a grave new warning Wednesday about a cocktail of illegal street drugs made of fentanyl and xylazine that's fueling another wave of American overdose deaths.
"I'm deeply concerned about what this threat means for the nation," said Dr. Rahul Gupta, head of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy.
Xylazine, known on the street as tranq, was first linked to drug deaths in the Northeast but has since spread rapidly in Southern and Western states...
Public health experts say frequent xylazine users also suffer terrible wounds when they inject the drug.
"People are often ending up having to have amputations of their limbs, or having deep ulcers, infections or sepsis," Gupta said
--
Comment (NPW): We shall be taking a deep-dive into the opiate information and learning needs of different stakeholder groups later this year, thanks to support from the Ulrich and Ruth Frank Foundation for International Health and NextGenU.org In the meantime I would like to ask: To what extent are people aware of the deadly nature of this 'cocktail' and the fact that injection may result in 'terrible wounds' requiring amputation?
Best wishes, Neil
Joint Coordinator, HIFA Mental Health: Substance use disorders
https://www.hifa.org/projects/mental-health-meeting-information-needs-su...
HIFA profile: Neil Pakenham-Walsh is coordinator of HIFA (Healthcare Information For All), a global health community that brings all stakeholders together around the shared goal of universal access to reliable healthcare information. HIFA has 20,000 members in 180 countries, interacting in four languages and representing all parts of the global evidence ecosystem. HIFA is administered by Global Healthcare Information Network, a UK-based nonprofit in official relations with the World Health Organization. Email: neil@hifa.org
