COVID-19 Impact on Drug Addiction in Healthcare Industry
The COVID-19 has been declared as a pandemic by World Health Organization (WHO) due to its increased spread across the globe. The virus has spread to all continents from North America, Europe, Middle East and Africa and Asia-Pacific to South America. After the declaration of the pandemic, several nations such as the United States, Germany, India and China among others declared the full lockdown in order to limit its spread. Owing to the infectious existence of COVID-19, the pandemic related restrictions placed also increased the need for opioid abuse services as the fragmented drug supply chain created a shortage of availability. According to the UN Office on Drugs and Violence, we have about 35 million opioid users worldwide (UNODC). According to the World Health Organization (WHO) weekly epidemiology study of 20th September 2020, 30.6 million corona cases have been registered globally and 950,000 patients have died due to coronavirus. The outbreak of COVID-19 is causing untold health challenges especially on the vulnerable drug addict population having huge impact on the healthcare industry majorly for the drug addiction market.

IMPACT ON DEMAND
The COVID-19 pandemic has lifted the drug addiction treatment industry from its niche pedestal to the mainstream sector. The outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic has further expanded the role of drug addiction treatment due to well spread awareness regarding weakening of immunity and cardiovascular system due to excessive drug consumption. In long run, the COVID-19 pandemic has the potential to profoundly transform the drug market. Several companies operating in the domain are working to develop an opioid substitution therapy and other medication and some have already entered the landscape of the drug addiction market to increase their revenue by meeting the emergent need of sustainable and reliable therapies.
For instance,
• In the U.S., during July 2020, federal government made law transformations to make the addiction treating drug naloxone accessible during the pandemic. FDA made amendments for the manufacturers to upgrade their respective package inserts and add on naloxone associated recommendations.
The demand for drug addiction treatment surged as available research outcomes suggested that drug addicts are more likely to experience worse COVID-19 outcomes. In order to decrease the mortality rate of patients undergoing rehabilitation programmes accessible and unhindered, the supply of addiction treatment drugs are required. In the U.S., an investigating team reported that while individuals with substance use disorder accounted for 10.3% of the overall study population, they accounted for 15.6% of COVID-19 cases and were also prone to worse COVID-19 outcomes such as hospitalization or death than general population Read in detail...