Dr. Allison Arwady, director of the National Center for Injury Prevention and Control at the CDC, tells us about historic progress in the field of overdose prevention; Catherine Murphy, ASTHO government affairs analyst, discusses the advocacy effort...
Dr. Allison Arwady, director of the National Center for Injury Prevention and Control at the CDC, tells us about historic progress in the field of overdose prevention; Catherine Murphy, ASTHO government affairs analyst, discusses the advocacy effort from ASTHO’s Spring Leadership Forum; and Trust for America’s Health will host a congressional briefing on April 23 that is focused on its Ready or Not 2025 report.
CDC Web Page: CDC Reports Nearly 24% Decline in U.S. Drug Overdose Deaths
ASTHO Blog Article: Strengthening Public Health Advocacy at ASTHO’s Spring Leadership Forum
Trust for America’s Health Web Page: TFAH Congressional Briefing – Ready or Not
ASTHO Public Health Review Morning Edition Episode 882: Harris Testifies on Hill; 2025 TFAH Report
SUMMER JOHNSON:
This is the award winning Public Health Review Morning Edition for Friday, April 18, 2025. I'm Summer Johnson. Now, today's news from the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials.
ALLISON ARWADY:
It is really very encouraging news for those of us who have been working on opioid overdose prevention for a long time.
JOHNSON:
Dr. Allison Arwady leads the National Center for Injury Prevention and Control at CDC. Arwady is talking about the most recent data on opioid overdose prevention.
ARWADY:
When we look at all of the people that died in the US from an overdose coming up to October of 2024 and compare it to just one year earlier, we are down now more than 25% in overdose deaths during that time period. It's actually the biggest year over year drop that we have ever recorded in overdose deaths in this country.
JOHNSON:
Arwady says the declaration of opioid overdoses as a public health emergency allowed the country to build up resources, expertise, and data collection.
ARWADY:
It's making sure that in every part of this country, our public health infrastructure is able to have the data; what exactly is happening, not just counting deaths, but what's happening with non-fatal overdoses, protecting patient privacy, when and where and how are these overdoses changing, and then where do we intervene?
JOHNSON:
As you dig deeper into the numbers, those findings are positive as well.
ARWADY:
And it's not just that fatal overdoses are dropping, right? Whereas, as my scientists have been looking into this, it's not just that, if we were just seeing fatal overdoses dropping, you'd say, well, maybe we're just better at naloxone; and although we are better at naloxone, but we're also seeing non-fatal overdoses dropping by double digits, and we're seeing youth substance use dropping by double digits.
JOHNSON:
You can also examine the new data. There's a link in the show notes. We'll bring you more from our interview with Arwady about the new opioid overdose data and what it means, on Monday's newscast. Make sure you're following the show wherever you listen to audio content so you don't miss an episode.
ASTHO's government affairs team recently published a blog article wrapping up the advocacy efforts of members at ASTHO's Spring Leadership Forum. ASTHO's Catherine Murphy says the ASTHO board met with leaders from HHS, HRSA, FDA, and several other offices.
CATHERINE MURPHY:
The timing of these meetings is especially important. It's the beginning of a new administration, and it's crucial that these leaders have open lines of communication between ASTHO and our state health officials.
JOHNSON:
Murphy says those conversations included many very important public health issues.
MURPHY:
Key topics in these conversations span the breadth of public health work in the States, from core public health programs to the importance of food safety enforcement and response, emerging infectious disease response, chronic disease prevention strategies, addressing the overdose epidemic, and shoring up supply chains.
JOHNSON:
While the Spring Leadership Forum is a great time for members to be involved in advocacy, ASTHO works year-round with policymakers on your behalf.
MURPHY:
Our members have already been communicating with their members of Congress that they met with in these meetings, and sharing resources about how funding for public health impacts their state, some of the programs they're working on, and they've invited them for site visits and more back home.
JOHNSON:
The full blog article is online now. Read it by clicking the link in the show notes.
Finally, Trust for America's Health will host a congressional briefing on April 23 focused on its Ready or Not 2025 report. ASTHO alum Paula Nickelson, who's the former director and SHO for the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services, will be a panelist for the briefing. You can RSVP for the event, and if you'd like to learn more about the TFAH Ready or Not 2025 report, we covered it in a recent episode of this newscast. We'll have both a link to that episode and the RSVP link in the show notes.
That'll do it for today. We're back Monday morning with more ASTHO news and information. I'm Summer Johnson, you're listening to the award-winning Public Health Review Morning Edition. Have a great weekend.
