In the first three months of this year, Health Canada is reporting 1,036 apparent opioid-related deaths nationwide – of which 94% were deemed accidental.
The rest were suicides, or undetermined based on incomplete, or competing data.
Five of those deaths were in New Brunswick, compared to eight the year before, and 11 the year before that over the same first quarter of the year time period.
In New Brunswick, in the first quarter of 2018, emergency medical services responded to 22 incidents where patients were given naloxone – a medication used to block the effects of opioids.
Since January 2016, Canada reported 3,0005 apparent opioid-related deaths in 2016, and 3,996 in 2017, with 1,036 so far in the first quarter of this year for a total of 8,037.
62 of those deaths have been of New Brunswickers.
For the first quarter 2018 data, of the deaths recorded, 73% were from fentanyl, or fentanyl analogues with individuals between the ages of 30 and 39 years of age representing the highest proportion of accidental apparent opioid-related deaths 27%)
In a statement accompany the updated data, Special Advisory Committe on the Epidemic of Opioid Overdoes co-chairs Dr. Theresa Tam (Chief Public Health Officer of Canada) and Dr. Robert Strange (Chief Medical Officer of Health, Nova Scotia) say the study released today highlights the change in recent years of the profile of people who are dying.
They say historically, overdose-related deaths ‘tended to be concentrated among people who had consumed drugs for a prolonged period.’
However, the current crisis is revealing a wider spectrum, they say ‘from persons who pass away the first time they take drugs, to persons living with chronic pain, to persons more experienced with substance abuse.’
The full report is HERE.
