Here’s an appeal that we ignore at our own peril.

It’s an open letter from Dr. Vivek H. Murthy, the U.S. Surgeon General, to the nation’s health care professionals asking them to take responsibility for the prescription opioid epidemic.

While the surgeon general’s title and role are largely symbolic, the office presents an opportunity to draw attention to key medical issues and set priorities for improving health. This is what Murthy is doing: calling on clinicians to turn back the rising tide of opioid dependence.

“Everywhere I travel, I see communities devastated by opioid overdoses. I meet families too ashamed to seek treatment for addiction,” he writes. “And I will never forget my own patient whose opioid use disorder began with a course of morphine after a routine procedure.”

Nearly 20 years ago the medical community changed course in the treatment of pain. Doctors were encouraged to be more aggressive, often without enough training and support to do so safely, Murthy writes.

“This coincided with heavy marketing of opioids to doctors. Many of us were even taught — incorrectly — that opioids are not addictive when prescribed for legitimate pain.”

The results have been devastating and continue to decline. Since 1999, opioid overdose deaths have quadrupled. Opioid prescriptions have increased markedly — almost enough for every adult in America to have a bottle of pills.

Curiously enough, the amount of pain reported by Americans has not changed.

Now, nearly 2 million people in America have a prescription opioid use disorder, contributing to increased heroin use and the spread of HIV and hepatitis C — and countless incidents of crime to fuel voracious heroin addictions.

Murthy is asking doctors to “build a national movement” based on three things:

n Educate ourselves to treat pain safely and effectively. A good place to start is the TurnTheTideRx pocket guide with the CDC Opioid Prescribing Guideline.

n Screen our patients for opioid use disorder and provide or connect them with evidence-based treatment.

n Discuss and treat addiction as a chronic illness, not a moral failing.

He’s asking the nation’s doctors to read his letter at the website http://turnthetiderx.org/# and to add their name to the pledge.

It’s neither a magic-bullet remedy nor a self-fulfilling prophecy. But area clinicians and medical professionals should be encouraged to support the campaign. Eradicating the blight of opioid abuse should be the continued focus of a culture that no longer can afford to remain in the grips of this disease.

Murthy writes: “I know solving this problem will not be easy. We often struggle to balance reducing our patients’ pain with increasing their risk of opioid addiction ... but, as clinicians, we have the unique power to help end this epidemic. As cynical as times may seem, the public still looks to our profession for hope during difficult moments. This is one of those times.”