Ky. EMS Receiving Significant Increase in Overdose Calls

After administering naloxone--better known as Narcan--to 36 patients who had overdosed in the first 25 days of the year, Carlos Coyle said the first quarter was up nearly 50 percent from 2016.

"We're still falling short," the EMS director said.

In the first three months of 2017, EMS paramedics had administered 144 doses of Narcan to 97 patients. Those numbers are up from 107 doses to 67 patients in the first quarter of 2016.

Those numbers don't tell the complete picture either, according to Coyle.

"We've made numerous overdose runs this year where a patient had either left the scene or has been treated without Narcan," he said.

The numbers represent a disturbing and growing trend.

In 2014, Coyle said 231 doses were administered to 186 patients and the numbers increased to 404 doses to 264 patients in 2015. Last year was even worse as EMS administered 443 doses to 291 patients.

The Kentucky Department of Public Health, as part of its 52 weeks of public health campaign, is emphasizing the importance of naloxone education and services for communities to address the impact of opioid abuse.

"This is a very serious public health issue tied to a number of overdoses, hospitalizations and deaths across the country," said Dr. Hiram Polk, Jr., Kentucky's Public Health Commissioner, in a release. "Heroin, particularly contaminated heroin mixed with carfentanyl, fentanyl and other toxic substances, is highly toxic and can lead to respiratory failure and death. As healthcare professionals and community leaders, we must be aware of the threat and take steps to address it."

Polk also is urging hospitals to stock up on Narcan, the "antidote" to heroin and other drug overdoses. He stressed the effectiveness of the DPH harm reduction strategy, which employs a mobile pharmacy unit and on-site testing for Hepatitis C and HIV, in helping communities prepare to respond to opioid abuse and its related health issues.

The DPH mobile unit is staffed with pharmacists who visit various locations at the request of local health departments to provide communities with naloxone training, the release noted. Following the training, free naloxone is given by request to members of the community. Testing for HIV and Hepatitis C are also provided.

"It can take as much as three times the amount of naloxone to reverse an overdose with these mixed drugs as it would normally," said Polk. "Communities must be educated about the risks associated with these dangerous drugs."

Jonathan Greene is the editor of The Register; follow him on Twitter @jgreeneRR.

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