The surge in drug overdose deaths may finally be slowing, according to the latest figures from the Federal Center for Disease Control, and people who have died from opiate overdoses have been successfully given naloxone. Thanks to you, Navajo County is on the front lines.
Navajo County administers naloxone in 94% of overdoses. This is her second highest percentage in the state. Police officers, sheriff’s deputies, and paramedics manage most of these doses.
The county is also working to increase treatment programs for addicts rather than imprison them.
However, the use of naloxone by police and paramedics reduced the death rate in Navajo County to 18 per 100,000 people, just below the statewide average. That may not be all that great, but Navajo County used to have high overdose mortality rates.
The Arizona Department of Health numbers only include the non-reservation portion of Navajo and Apache counties.
Apache County has a mortality rate of 30 per 100,000 people, 63% higher than the statewide average. In Apache County, only 83% of his overdoses are given naloxone. This is better than Gila County, where only 74% of overdoses are interrupted by antidote administration. The mortality rate is 170% above the statewide average.
Naloxone is used in 80% of overdoses statewide.
There have been 107,000 overdose deaths in the United States in the past year, two-thirds of which are linked to the fentanyl epidemic. Fentanyl is a powerful synthetic opioid currently included in a host of other illicit drugs. That’s much more than in the years before the pandemic, but 40 less than in the 2021 calendar year.
“The data continue to show hopeful trends in declining overdose deaths,” but more prevention and treatment efforts are needed, said Rahul Gupta, director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy. said in a statement, Dr.
Statewide, officials have reported 2,871 overdoses (a rate of 40 per 100,000) in the first six months of 2022. The state also reported 1,400 overdose deaths. That’s a rate of 19 per 100,000 people.
In non-reservation areas of Navajo County, 20 overdose deaths were reported at a rate of 18.6 per 100,000 population. Apache County also he reported 20 deaths, but 30 per 100,000 due to its small population.
Navajo County has reported 46 non-fatal overdoses, a rate of 43 per 100,000. Apache County has him reporting 15 non-fatal overdoses, and his rate is 23 per 100,000 people.
Statewide, 2,871 nonfatal overdoses resulted in a death rate of 40 per 100,000.
So Navajo County actually has more overdoses per 100,000 inhabitants, but far fewer deaths.
In contrast, Apache County has far fewer overdoses but far more deaths.
This difference may reflect Navajo County’s success in ensuring that the antidote is administered the moment paramedics and law enforcement arrive on the scene. Naloxone almost instantly reverses the effects of an opiate overdose, bringing people back from the dead.
Statewide, paramedics administer 78% of naloxone. Law enforcement is next, about 15% of cases. Bystanders and other medical professionals administer the remaining doses.
Navajo County administered naloxone in 55 of 57 cases in 2021, with incomplete numbers for the past four months. Apache County administered antidotes in 15 of the 18 cases. The State Department of Health Services did not provide a county-by-county breakdown of who actually administered naloxone.
Nationally, the Centers for Disease Control reported that the drug overdose epidemic may level off as of the most recent reporting period, last June. It appears to be driven primarily by the fentanyl epidemic, rather than the deadly increase in drug addiction.
Four states—Maryland, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia—reported significant improvements and have vigorous outreach and education efforts while expanding addiction treatment and naloxone use.
The data are still preliminary, with past apparent stagnation leading to new surges. But the CDC’s latest report expresses a cautious hope that the increase in deaths has at least peaked.
Arizona was one of the states with fewer fatalities, down about 3% from the same period last year. Utah dropped her 8%. Her seven other states in the East reported declines of up to 11%. Led by her 32% increase in South Dakota, other parts of the United States are still reporting increases.
CDC numbers reflect trends from June 2021 to June 2022.
The country has hit a false plateau before. The death toll in 2018 was 67,000, down 4% from the previous year. Officials confidently predicted the plague would recede and acknowledged efforts to crack down on prescription painkiller use and naloxone use. has accelerated.
Some studies suggest that the 2018 decline may reflect China’s crackdown on the production of the opioid carfentanil in the country. This may have reduced the smuggling of these potent synthetic opioids into the United States. The synthetic drug is probably 100 times more potent than his morphine.
But fentanyl is added to many other street drugs, such as cocaine and methamphetamine. According to the Federal Drug Enforcement Administration, several Mexican drug cartels now account for the majority of fentanyl smuggled into the United States.
The drug remains a scourge in Navajo and Apache counties, according to the ADHS website tracking the ongoing cost of life and medical bills.
Overdose is the cause of 243 hospital visits in Navajo County, a rate of 511 per 100,000 population. Apache County had 734 visits per 100,000. Statewide, overdoses have resulted in his 20,000 hospital visits so far in 2022. That’s a rate of 682 per 100,000 people.
Doctors wrote a total of 39,000 opium prescriptions in Navajo County and 20,000 in Apache County.
Clearly, we’re still addicted to painkillers, with 3% of the population receiving prescriptions at some point in the year. Statewide, 2.1 million prescriptions are issued annually. The current opiate epidemic began with deregulation of prescription pain relievers. The surge in addiction, overdose and abuse is also due to aggressive marketing of excipient pain relievers by pharmaceutical companies.
When doctors tried to lose weight, people who were already addicted simply searched the streets for drugs. This eventually led to an explosion of illegal fentanyl pills and even a resurgence of heroin addiction.
Navajo and Apache counties recently learned of a multi-billion dollar settlement with drug companies promoting opiates with misleading claims and incentives for prescribers. There may be a new injection of funds to improve the program.
State Health Department websites documented nine overdoses at Show Low, three more at Snowflake/Heber, and four at Winslow during the six-month reporting period.
