The Food and Drug Administration is expected this week to allow the overdose-reversal medication to be sold without a prescription, a step toward making it a common emergency tool.
The overdose reversal drug has been administered mostly by emergency responders and outreach workers. If the agency approves a nonprescription version, it could become as easily available as aspirin.
As the number of cases outside Africa approaches 800, governments are scrambling for a limited pool of vaccines and treatments with unclear effectiveness.