Resurgence in opioid deaths
The provincial trend toward fewer drug overdose deaths has been reversed in recent months.
Statistics for March and April across the province — and in the Interior Health region — show an increase in the number of people dying from overdoses.
Reports from the BC Coroners Service show an average of 3.2 drug overdose deaths per day in the first four months of this year.
"We remain in a public health emergency, with more than three British Columbians dying each day from illicit drug toxicity deaths," said Lisa Lapointe, chief coroner, in a news release. "Illicit drug toxicity death rates in B.C. are still the highest for any jurisdiction in Canada. Every region in B.C. has been impacted.”
The death totals for March and April 2020, 112 and 117 deaths respectively, mark the first time B.C. has recorded more than 100 drug toxicity deaths in back-to-back months since November and December 2018.
April’s total of 117 overdose deaths was a 39% increase over
April 2019.
So far this year, 382 people have died in B.C. from illegal-drug overdoses, compared to 379 after the first four months of 2019. That’s still well below the 500-plus deaths recorded in 2017 and 2018.
Nineteen overdose deaths have been reported in Kelowna so far this year. That compares to 33 in all of last year, 56 in 2018 and 73 in all of 2017.
The Okanagan has had 30 overdose deaths, compared to 84 in all of last year. The death rate for the Okanagan this year is 22.8 per 100,000, slightly above 2019’s 20.9, but below the 2017 and 2018 rates.
The Interior Health region reported 67 deaths to the end of April, compared to 55 in the same time period last year.
The 21 deaths recorded in IH in April was four more than in March and 12 more than in April of 2019.
The death rate of 25.1 per 100,000 people in IH is up from 2019’s 17.5, but below the 2017 and 2018 rates.
The Okanagan and Interior Health region are high on the lists for overdose deaths involving fentanyl. Fentanyl has been detected in 71% of the overdoses so far this year in B.C. and in 50 deaths in IH, 23 in the Okanagan and 14 in Kelowna to the end of April.
The BC Centre for Disease Control recently posted an alert on increased drug toxicity reported throughout British Columbia with spikes in fatal and non-fatal overdose events through smoking and injecting.
Eighty per cent of the overdoses occur in private homes.
No deaths have been reported at supervised consumption or drug overdose prevention sites, the reports say.
Seventy-one per cent of those dying were aged 19 to 49, with males accounting for 79% of deaths this year to date, both increases from 2019.
Interior Health and other health authorities recently released the made-in-B.C. Lifeguard app. The app is activated by a drug user before they take their dose. After 50 seconds the app will sound an alarm. If the user doesn’t hit a button to stop the alarm, indicating they are fine, the alarm grows louder. After 75 seconds a text-to-voice call will go straight to 9-1-1, alerting emergency medical dispatchers of a potential overdose.