Surgeon General Sends Letter About Opioid Epidemic To All US Doctors
It's a historic event - it's the first time that America's top doctor has reached out to all physicians. Every single doctor in the United States will soon be receiving the letter included below from the US Surgeon General.
United States Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy has a particularly important and historically unparalleled reason for sending the letter, which implores doctors to help in the fight. Every year tens of thousands of Americans die from overdoses of prescription painkillers. These include opioid drugs such as Percocet, Oxycontin, and Vicodin, and many others.
The top US doctor begins the letter with , "I am asking for your help to solve an urgent health crisis facing America: the opioid epidemic.
The Surgeon General explains to doctors that he understands their desire to keep their patients out of pain.
"It is important to recognize that we arrived at this place on a path paved with good intentions," he writes.
However, it's clear now that those good intentions have gone horribly wrong and produced immense suffering.
Earlier this year, in March, the Centers for Disease Control issued an unusual CDC report providing guidelines for opioid prescriptions.
In another development, this July, the Obama Administration took more action to address the Prescription Opioid and Heroin Epidemic.
The Surgeon General was also on the popular TV show CBS This Morning and talked about the crisis and the letter.
78 people are now dying each and every day from opioid overdose, a number that has seen steady increases. We can only hope that efforts such as this one by our top doctor will help to solve this horrible epidemic.
