Health care researchers in West Virginia have become experts on neonatal abstinence syndrome, or NAS. Unfortunately, in-state expertise is necessary. Our state’s incidence of NAS is very high.

NAS is a condition of newborn babies whose mothers abused opioid drugs. In effect, the infants come into the world addicted to opioids. Withdrawal can be excruciating for them. Adverse health effects can persist for years.

This is not someone else’s tragedy. Five Northern Panhandle counties — Brooke, Hancock, Marshall, Ohio and Wetzel — had the highest NAS rates, by far, in the state, according to the most recent data released by the state Department of Health and Human Resources.

In 2017, 8.34% of babies born in the five counties suffered from NAS, according to the DHHR. The state rate was about 5.1%.

But many babies born in our region were lucky, in a way. DHHR statistics for 2017 show 18.47% of babies born in the five local counties were exposed to opioid substances. Most of these infants escaped NAS.

Though substance abuse is a national epidemic affecting many states, most others have not mounted thorough studies of NAS. National statistics, in fact, seem to be current only through 2014.

By the end of that year, federal health officials estimated the cost to U.S. hospitals of treating NAS babies at half a billion dollars a year.

Various initiatives have been launched in efforts to curb NAS. They rely primarily on educating women of childbearing age about illicit drug use.

Clearly, more needs to be done. But what?

Opioid addiction can leave victims virtually helpless. If a woman is hooked when she becomes pregnant, the chance of getting “clean” while the baby is in her womb is slim. There are treatments, however.

Clearly, doing more to prevent NAS and to help babies afflicted by it needs to be a very high priority in West Virginia. The goal should be to make our state, already a leader in identifying the problem, the standard-bearer in solving it.