While illicit drug deaths keep rising across the province, fentanyl-related overdoses were trending downwards until last month.
Northern BC had 4 fatal overdoses in October; 63 occurred province wide. There have been 622 fatal overdoses in BC so far this year, a giant jump from the 397 last year. And while the number of fatal overdoses per month decreased from June through September, there were 63 in October, six more than September.
Fentanyl has been the cause in 332 deaths from January through September – 59.4% of the total of fatal overdoses. It’s taken 22 northern lives in 2016.
There’s a significant gender-divide when it comes to fentanyl-related deaths. So far this year, men make up 80% of fentanyl casualties.
Northern Health’s Dr. Andrew Gray has seen the rise first hand. He says Northern Health has been doing all it can to battle the crisis locally.
“We’ve been gathering better information, we’ve been doing enhanced surveillance through our emergency departments and we’ve been getting take-home naloxone – an opioid-reversing medicine – out to as many community sites as possible.”
Members of the provincial government, like Health Minister Terry Lake, are headed to the federal Conference on Opioid Overdoses tomorrow and Saturday in Ottawa.
Premier Christy Clark is leading a delegation of people who have been affected by overdoses, a group that will speak to different levels of government about their experiences and ideas to battle the crisis.
You can read the BC Coroner’s Service reports on illicit drug deaths and fentanyl-related deaths online.
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