'This crisis isn't going away:' Brantford sees uptick in opioid overdoses

Brantford has seen 17 reported overdoses in the first 12 days of 2020 and the Brant Public Health Unit says it's a sign there's more work to be done.

That includes four fatal overdoses, all of which happened on Jan. 10 in Brantford.

Dr. Elizabeth Urbantke, the unit's medical officer of health, tells CBC she can't call it a trend yet, but says it could become one.

"Compared to last year's average of 13 overdose incidents per month ... certainly, there has been an uptick in overdose incidents," she says.

"This crisis isn't going away. It's going to take real coordinated effort."

Urbantke says depending on the drug, an amount as small as a few grains of salt could be fatal.

"The prevalence of fentanyl is a serious concern for many communities, the Brantford Police Service is working with our community partners to increase public awareness and enhance community education," Robin Matthews-Osmond, a corporate communications manager with Brantford Police, tells CBC in a statement.

Brantford has increased the number of naloxone kits around town — and Hamilton has followed suit.

At least nine overdoses in Hamilton in 2020

Michelle Baird, the director of the City of Hamilton's epidemiology, wellness and communicable disease control department, says Hamilton knows of nine reported overdoses since the start of the year, which is "not outside of the normal."

But the number of naloxone kits has surged between 2018 and 2019 — and that means there's a higher potential to reduce lethal opioid overdoses.

"There's more naxolone kits than ever there has been before," Baird tells CBC.

Sometimes, the effects of opioids like fentanyl can outlast the effects of naloxone, but the kits in Hamilton have two doses worth, which is usually enough to be life-saving.

In Hamilton last year, 596 people called 911 for a suspected opioid overdose, which was about 50 per month and 1.3 times higher than 2018. 

Other city data from 2019 shows a spike in 911 calls at the start of the year. From January to March there were 364 calls, compared to 175 in 2018 and 125 in 2017.

Though the data isn't complete, the number of opioid deaths in 2019 with 70 deaths between January and June. The city does not show monthly numbers for previous years, but 2018 had a total of 124 opioid deaths while 2017 had just 88.

"What we do hear anecdotally and from people on the front line … is that there are different compositions of drugs on the street. Sometimes its higher concentrations of fentanyl ... what people have access to drives the number of overdoses we're seeing," Baird says.

"This is the problem with street products, users really don't know what they're getting."

The numbers also show more people are taking themselves to hospitals rather than phoning 911 — and the number of emergency department visits appears to have spiked.

Although only January, February and March are included in the data set, visits to the emergency room are about triple the number in 2018 during the same period.

"Don't forget, these are simply paramedic incidents, there are overdoses that occur where paramedics might not be called right away or not involved," Baird says.