CNN —The Biden administration launched an initiative Wednesday that it describes as a nationwide call to increase training on and access to life-saving opioid overdose reversal medications, dubbed the Challenge to Save Lives from Overdose. Naloxone, sometimes sold under the brand name Narcan, is a medication that can rapidly reverse the effects of an opioid overdose. Although the number of overdose deaths in the US has held steady recently, the nation has many more than other high-income countries, research shows. Almost half of adults in the US say they personally know at least one person who died from a drug overdose, according to a survey released this year. Drug overdose deaths reached a significant high in 2022 with more than 109,000, according to provisional data from the CDC, and fentanyl had been a significant factor contributing to the rise.

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