"Together we can break the cycle of opioid addiction and stop this epidemic in the United States. Together, we’re United2Fight."
- Saanvi Mittal, Founder
Our Mission
United2Fight works to help rebuild communities facing rampant opioid addictions, through education tools, strengthening public health infrastructure in needy areas, reaching out to marginalized communities, and galvanizing widespread support to help end this epidemic.
Message From Our Founder & President
In 2017, I had the distinct privilege of working alongside a team of medical researchers, including doctors, nurses, and public health practitioners, to publish research that examined the feasibility of “recycling” transplant kidneys infected with Hepatitis C (HCV), now that HCV can be treated and cured with direct-acting antivirals (DAAs) treatments. Because livers are in desperate need of transplant patients, losing potentially viable organs to diseases like HCV is particularly negatively impactful for our medical system; therefore, the idea of curing HCV in transplant organs has an incredible capacity to save a large number of lives for transplant candidates moving forward.
While engaging in this research at the Medical College of Virginia (MCV), I learned that Hepatitis C is spread when blood from an HCV-positive person enters the body of a non-infected person and that the disease is often transmitted through intravenous drug use and sharing of needles. Additionally, many of the livers we examined were from people who had overdosed on intravenous drugs, which then made their livers non-viable for transplant rehabilitation. In discussing the types of drugs used, I learned more about opioid use – not just heroin, but fentanyl, prescription opioids, and other narcotics. This made me realize how large of an issue the opioid epidemic is.
According to the CDC, approximately 130 Americans die every day from an opioid overdose. In 2017, 47,600 overdose deaths were attributed to opioids, of a total 70,237 overdose deaths that year – meaning that 68% of all overdose deaths were attributed to opioids. That number is rising, too. In fact, the CDC mentions that overdose deaths increased by 9.6% from 2016 to 2017. [Citation: https://www.cdc.gov/drugoverdose/data/statedeaths.html]
Often the data on drug overdoses is less than the actual number of those affected, as many of the people who die from overdoses do not even make it to the hospital. Although healthcare systems and the government are committed to helping people who are already suffering from addiction, there needs to be more community prevention and social infrastructure built to help people before they become addicted to opioids. Virginia, where I live, the number of deaths attributed to opioid overdoses is considerably higher than many states in the nation. In 2019, data showed a 4% increase in total drug fatalities in Richmond. That’s why I created United2Fight.
I wanted to help create awareness about this epidemic to help people battle the rising number of addictions by spreading education and medically-sound methods of handling opioid use, warning signs, and overdose. United2Fight also will work to examine disparities between urban and rural populations, as both include marginalized communities where people do not have ready access to medical help. Additionally, I want United2Fight to help connect with local politicians to pass legislation to help prevent this epidemic and provide addicts with the type of rehabilitation help they need.
Please join me in my efforts!
Sincerely,
Saanvi Mittal, Founder & President
How is Virginia Responding?
Virginia has addressed prescription drug abuse in several ways, including with a dedicated study, the creation of the RELIVE program, and multi-agency effort to provide training in opioid abuse recognition and response. The General Assembly in 2016 passed bi-partisan legislation focused on curtailing opioid misuse. Virginia's new two-year budget has $11 million in funding to create new, and expand current, Substance Use Disorder (SUD) treatment services for Medicaid beneficiaries.