Tracing the Source of the Opioid Epidemic
The opioid epidemic has been of grave concern throughout our nation recently, especially after the Department of Health and Human Services declared the opioid epidemic a public health crisis in 2017. Yet, this isn’t a typical epidemic with biologically spread diseases. This is, rather, an epidemic that is human-made. Yet, the features of it are fairly similar to an epidemic that is started by bacteria or a virus. However, the techniques that are being used to fight this disease has been different in comparison to biologically-spread diseases. The terms I am using here will conflate the opioid addiction to be similar to that of a disease and relate this epidemic with network analysis.
The end goal of the opioid epidemic, like any other epidemic, is to find solutions to contain its spread to ensure people stay in the “susceptible” state and ensure that those that are “infected” to enter into a “recovery” phase. For those that are addicted on opioids, however, the journey to recovery is difficult to start because, unlike other diseases, there is no exact incubation period for the disease. Therefore, it makes it particularly difficult for medical personnel and analysts to use networks to determine the spread of the opioid epidemic. Therefore, while helping those that are recovering ensure that they stay recovered, policies and actions need to be taken in order to ensure that people stay susceptible or be weaned off their addiction as quickly as possible to decrease the transmission probability. In that sense, strategies that are stated – such as that stated in this US News article with home-oriented treatment and changing the mindset of physicians – will ensure that those who enter into their recovery phase will not be able to transmit the disease to others and will not, themselves, revert back to being addicted. In this sense, people that do recover will be able to live their normal lives again and not affect others they encounter from entering into the “infected” state, thereby eliminating the epidemic in the future.
https://www.usnews.com/news/healthcare-of-tomorrow/articles/2019-11-19/how-hospitals-are-battling-the-opioid-epidemic