“These deaths have a serious impact on public health and numbers are usual and unexpected, which is a criteria for declaring a public health emergency”, said Dr. Kendall.
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The decision the province’s health officer, Dr. Perry Kendall, to sound the alarm comes amid a rising number of fatal overdoses across the country linked to fentanyl, a powerful opioid many times more potent than heroin.
The government in British Columbia, Canada, has declared the increasing number of drug-overdose deaths in the province a public health emergency and has enacted a rapid response system to track deaths.
Kendall served notice under the Public Health Act to exercise emergency powers.
“This information will help prevent future overdoses and deaths by better targeting outreach, bad drug warnings, awareness campaigns and distribution of naloxone training and kits”.
Information about the circumstances surrounding overdoses in the province where health-care workers or emergency personnel are involved will be reported and health officers will be able to act as quickly as possible. The emergency declaration should increase access to the information and accelerate the speed with which it is shared.
That data includes which drugs were taken, how they were used and where they were used. Under the new measures, health officers will track non-fatal overdoses and record information such as where they occurred and what drugs were used.
The main driver for overdoses in BC is opioids, with fentanyl-the deadly painkiller responsible for skyrocketing overdose rates across Canada-taking up 31 percent of all overdoses in 2015, compared to just five percent in 2012.
Lake said B.C. has a history of leading the country with its harm-reduction strategies. It will help health care workers connect with vulnerable communities and provide take-home naloxone to the people who need it. The information will be collected by the provincial health officer and analyzed at a provincial level by the BC Centre for Disease Control to better inform management of this public health crisis.
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“We will also continue to work with our law enforcement, health, child welfare, First Nations Health Authority and education partners to look for ways to reduce the number of people dying from illicit drug use”, she said. “So an individual who uses a pill they bought off the street that contains fentanyl may crush up a tablet, inject it and be fine but with the next one they do they may overdose”. A total of 76 deaths in January was the largest number of deaths in a single month since at least 2007.
