Growing Minneapolis homeless camp raises public health alarms

Katherine “Kat” Yanez stepped out of her tent, took a long drag from her cigarette, and scanned the faces outside a row of tents for signs that someone was overdosing on heroin.

A longtime heroin user herself, Yanez has learned to spot the symptoms: the slackened jaw, pale lips and drooping eyelids. Twice in the past month, she has saved a homeless companion in this camp from death with a shot of naloxone, a drug that reverses the effects of heroin. She keeps a rescue kit in her backpack.

http://www.startribune.com/growing-minneapolis-homeless-camp-raises-public-health-alarms/490743881/