Integrating Responses at the Intersection of Opioid Use Disorder and Infectious Disease Epidemics

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 115 Americans die each day from an opioid overdose, which averages one death every 12.5 minutes. Between 1999 and 2016, the number of drug overdoses catapulted by 300 percent, with injection drug use increasing by 93 percent between 2004 and 2014 and opioid-related hospital admissions increasing by 58 percent over the past decade. And an inexorable sequela of the opioid epidemic is the spread of infectious diseases.To address these infectious disease consequences of the opioid crisis, a public workshop titled Integrating Infectious Disease Considerations with Response to the Opioid Epidemic was convened on March 12 and 13, 2018, by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. Participants discussed strategies to prevent and treat infections in people who inject drugs, especially ways to work efficiently though the existing public health and medical systems. This publication summarizes the presentations and discussions from the workshop.Table of ContentsFront Matter1 Introduction2 The Scope of the Problem3 Exploring Opportunities for, and Barriers to, Treatment and Prevention in Public Health, Hospitals, and Rural America4 Exploring Opportunities in Correctional Health, Law, and Law Enforcement5 Research Directions, Policy Initiatives, and Potential Ways ForwardAppendix A Workshop AgendaAppendix B Speaker and Planning Committee Member BiosketchesAppendix C Statement of Task