Overdose warning stemmed from fatal overdoses across Interior: Chief medical health officer

THOMPSON OKANAGAN – After nine fatal overdoses in the Interior Health region, an overdose warning remains in place for all drug users.

The Interior Health Authority did not say where this month's overdoses took place, however chief medical health officer Dr. Trevor Corneil says the deaths were not clustered in any one area but scattered throughout the health authority, rendering useless any specific warning to a community or region.

Warnings about clusters of overdoses are sometimes issued without broader public release, Corneil said, if they are found to be in a small geographic area.

Information about impure or over-strength drug batches — the most common reason for overdose clusters — is derived from the coroner, local law enforcement and other first responders as well as emergency rooms at local hospitals, Corneil said.

Corneil said an overdose warning for the entire health authority is effective, despite not identifying where the overdoses happened, especially given the nature of this overdose epidemic where atypical users are often dying at home alone rather than on the street or in homeless shelters.

“Our focus now is determing how to access, not the low-hanging fruit, but the those who aren’t easy to reach,” Corneil added.

No new overdose deaths have been added to those that prompted the public warning last weekend, although the need for caution still stands.

Corneil says the B.C. Coroner Service has not advised the health authority of any new overdose deaths since the overdose death warnings released first on Friday evening, Jan. 26, then again Monday afternoon.

On Friday, Interior Health announced there were seven overdose deaths over a three day period from January 23 to 26 and issued standard cautions to drug users about using alone and the warning signs of opioid overdose.

On Monday, it announced two more deaths bringing the total to nine over five days or almost two per day.

According to numbers released today by the B.C. Coroners Service today, the Interior Health Authority recorded 238 overdose deaths in 2017.

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