PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Philadelphia has seen modest reductions in overdose deaths in recent years, but there’s been an increase in racial disparities. Health and safety officials on Thursday announced a new effort to reduce fatal overdoses for everyone.
Between 2019 and 2023 — the last year that figures were available — overdose deaths among white Philadelphians went down almost 20%. However, deaths went up 17% for Hispanic residents and 61% for Black residents.
State officials found what could be the key to that disparity: Black overdose victims were half as likely to receive the overdose-reversing drug naloxone. Philadelphia Public Safety Director Adam Geer said the new effort, called Naloxone in Black, seeks to solve that problem by making naloxone widely and easily available…