Latest news with #MetroHealthDepartment
Axios
04-06-2025
- Health
- Axios
Why opioid deaths are falling in Bexar County
Drug-related deaths in Bexar County have dropped from pandemic-era highs, but are still above 2019 levels, CDC data shows. Why it matters: Fatal overdoses initially rose during the COVID pandemic, but have been falling since 2023 as naloxone, which reverses an opioid overdose, has become more widely available. Flashback: Narcan, the best-known name brand of the drug, was made available over the counter in 2023. It is standard issue for first responders and available in treatment centers and some public places. By the numbers: There were 179 opioid-related deaths in Bexar County in 2024, per provisional CDC data the city's Metro Health Department shared with Axios. That's down 33.5% from a high of 269 such deaths in 2022, though still above the 135 deaths in 2019. Bexar County saw 208 stimulant-related drug deaths in 2024, down 23% from 270 in 2023 and up from 109 in 2019. Opioids include drugs like fentanyl and oxycodone. Stimulants include drugs like methamphetamine and cocaine. Naloxone works only on opioid overdoses. What they're saying:"The fact that Narcan … can reverse someone who is actively dying and who would have died otherwise, is hugely the reason why we see these decreases," Jessie Higgins, San Antonio's chief mental health officer, told a City Council committee last month. Yes, but: While deaths are dropping, it's hard to tell whether drug use itself is falling; that's harder to measure, Higgins said. Between the lines: Other factors contributing to the decline could include increased availability of paper test strips that detect fentanyl in illicit or counterfeit drugs. These can reduce fatal overdoses that happen when people take fentanyl-laced pills that look like prescription drugs. Zoom out: Almost all states saw decreases in overdose deaths in 2024. Across Texas, there were an estimated 4,990 overdose deaths, a nearly 15% decrease from a year earlier. There were an estimated 80,391 drug overdose deaths in the U.S. last year — a drop of 27% from 2023. Reality check: Experts warn a Trump administration budget proposal that would cut health services threatens the decline. A group of doctors and experts on addiction warned lawmakers in a letter last month that "drastic" cuts to federal health agencies and their grant recipients could set back efforts to address overdoses, addiction and mental health. Experts are particularly concerned that budget cuts could hit addiction recovery programs in rural areas and impoverished urban neighborhoods, NPR reported. The other side: U.S. Customs and Border Protection "is cracking down on the flow of deadly drugs into our country," White House spokesperson Kush Desai said in an emailed statement. CDC spokesperson Cassie Strawn said that the drug overdose epidemic "remains a critically important health issue" in the U.S.
Yahoo
10-04-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Programs for newborns, people with HIV at risk of federal cuts, Nashville mayor warns
Nashville public health programs could take a major hit, depending on whether yet another round of federal funding cuts proceeds. At his weekly media roundtable last week, Nashville Mayor Freddie O'Connell flagged a couple ways that $11 billion in potential cuts to public health funding through the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services would impact Nashville. Specifically, O'Connell pointed to two local programs — Nashville Strong Babies, which provides services to moms ranging from family planning services to prenatal and postpartum education free of charge, and the Ryan White program, which provides community-based care for low-income people living with HIV in Davidson County and a dozen other Middle Tennessee counties. Here's what else O'Connell had to say about what those programs stand to lose. If the cuts are allowed to proceed, O'Connell warned that they'll lead to direct impacts at the Metro Health Department, which facilitates both programs. Services to 426 families through the Strong Babies program would be affected, and the health department could lose upwards of 20 jobs. That would affect more than 50% of the program's services, O'Connell said. 'When we're able to demonstrate the success of return on public investment, I'm just left wondering what sense it makes to cut funds to programs like that,' O'Connell said last week. 'Ultimately, the greatest potential impact would be that we return to an era when there are significant points of discrimination within prenatal and early childhood care that could be at risk.' O'Connell said that could mean a return to higher infant mortality rates, especially in communities of color, and more mothers dying during pregnancy. The Ryan White program, meanwhile, also is firmly in the crosshairs. O'Connell said the program could see $4 million in cuts. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services issued $4,658,066 in grants for the program to Nashville in the 2024 fiscal year — similar to Nashville's total awards from the two previous fiscal years — and another $857,721 since the start of 2025. Austin Hornbostel is the Metro reporter for The Tennessean. Have a question about local government you want an answer to? Reach him at ahornbostel@ This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Nashville programs for newborns, HIV at risk of federal cuts
Yahoo
28-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Nashville plans legal action against Trump admin — again — as cuts hit Health Department
Metro Nashville leaders are mulling joining other cities in another round of legal action against the Trump administration. This suit would be in response to nationwide Centers for Disease Control and Prevention cuts to grants introduced in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Metro Nashville Health Department could lose up to eight grant-funded staff positions due to the budget reductions, officials said. Last week, Nashville officials joined a Southern Environmental Law Center and the Public Rights Project lawsuit against the Trump adminstration's Inflation Reduction Act cuts. Metro Director of Law Wally Dietz announced the looming legal action during Nashville Mayor Freddie O'Connell's weekly media roundtable Friday morning. Dietz said he believes the claw-back is unconstitutional and called it a 'gigantic issue.' Dietz said Nashville is actively working with other cities that have been similarly affected and 'fully intends' on filing a lawsuit to protect those grants. 'There is a procedure for the administration to go through if they want to impound these funds,' Dietz said. 'They could invoke the procedures of the Impoundment Control Act of 1974 and go to Congress and try to get these monies rescinded. That's the lawful way to do it — the way they chose is not lawful or constitutional.' O'Connell, for his part, said he's less worried about further legal action making Nashville a bigger target for federal cuts than he is about Metro losing access to funds 'we have legal rights to.' 'Frankly, I don't know that it can get much worse,' Dietz added. 'That's not a flippant comment — that's an evaluation of where we stand with the federal government right now.' O'Connell told reporters Friday that these cuts directly affect the Metro Health Department, where up to eight grant-funded staff positions will be lost. O'Connell said it's the first example to date of federal cuts leading directly to Metro Nashville jobs being eliminated. O'Connell said two of those staffers, for example, were working on finding a use for more than 100 housing pods, also called pallet shelters, that Metro purchased for an estimated $1.2 million in 2021 using COVID relief funds. 'We're working to identify other Metro employees to help pick up the process and support identifying a partner to roll this out as emergency housing, but this will delay any use of those shelters,' O'Connell said. The cuts will also affect the Health Department's measles response. While O'Connell said there's yet to be a case reported in Davidson County, cases have begun popping up in Middle Tennessee. Joanna Shaw-KaiKai, Metro Health Department's medical services director, said Friday that the department has been preparing for a potential local increase in measles cases for several weeks. In part, that work's been running through a 'strike team' of department personnel which has been holding vaccination clinics at area middle schools. But the Epidemiology and Laboratory Capacity grant funding was one of three awards rescinded Tuesday, Shaw-KaiKai said. The Health Department has worked with Metro Finance in the time since to restore that work, but Shaw-KaiKai said any disruption is a significant one when over 60% of the health department's work is funded by grants. 'The abrupt end of the funding meant several days of planned vaccine clinics were lost,' Shaw-KaiKai said. 'Disruptions like these can cause real public health issues, as any one person who is unvaccinated is more susceptible to contracting and spreading the disease they would have otherwise been protected against.' Metro has already taken legal action against the Trump administration in the past week. Last Friday, Nashville signed on to a lawsuit led by the Southern Environmental Law Center and the Public Rights Project seeking to halt the Trump administration's federal funding freeze on Inflation Reduction Act and Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act grants. Nashville is one of six cities included in the suit, along with 11 nonprofits. Each of them have been awarded federal grant funds, either as direct recipients or as sub-grantees, through an act of Congress. For Nashville, the lawsuit covers about $14 million in awarded funds that are likely to be rescinded entirely. Most recently, the two nonprofits leading the suit filed a motion for preliminary injunction, a type of temporary relief that, if granted, preserves the status quo before any ruling on a final judgment. Dietz said he's optimistic about that motion succeeding, but also indicated that he's ready to escalate if the Trump administration ignores a judge's order — both by filing a motion of contempt and even by taking the case all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. 'This is a critical time in our country's history — we'll see where we go,' Dietz said. 'Will the court stand up and defend the law? Will the Supreme Court make it clear that the president does not have the authority to ignore lawful orders of federal courts? There will be a clash. It is already, in my opinion, a constitutional crisis because the Trump administration has determined they are not obligated to follow orders of federal courts.' Austin Hornbostel is the Metro reporter for The Tennessean. Have a question about local government you want an answer to? Reach him at ahornbostel@ This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Metro Nashville considers suing Trump admin following CDC grant cuts
