This week: A study explores alternatives to opioid prescriptions and pregnant women are not getting recommended vaccines. .

In addition to historical analysis, the SOA also projected costs for the opioid epidemic in 2019 based on three scenarios reflecting how the crisis may develop moving forward.

Among the challenges facing our rural neighbors that make the picture more dire are the opioid crisis - exacerbated by decreased economic opportunities - lack of health insurance and the closing of rural medical facilities, which often creates medical deserts that lack convenient access to adequate health care.

In Boston, the city paid for the device through a grant from RIZE Massachusetts, a foundation focused on combating the opioid epidemic.

Calif. Attorney General Xavier Becerra, discussing the lawsuit his office has filed against Purdue Pharma. Purdue Pharma, which makes OxyContin and other potentially addictive prescription opioids, has . It’s also facing for its leading role in creating the . The company is trying to reach a broad settlement with the many jurisdictions now suing. The settlement it’s proposing would transform the company from a profit-seeking privately held company into a “” that serves the public good. I study the . Although there are some recent efforts to to help make more readily available, I know of no historical precedent for a big drugmaker like Purdue becoming a nonprofit public health provider. But two similarly ambitious efforts to build alternativ.

TAIPEI , Dec. 3, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Opioid misuse, addiction, and overdoses have caused significant social and economic burdens leading to the opioid crisis.