Pubdate: Thu, 06 Oct 2016 Source: Medicine Hat News (CN AB) Copyright: 2016 Alberta Newspaper Group, Inc. Contact: http://www.medicinehatnews.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1833 Author: Peggy Revell Page: A5 NALOXONE KITS SAVING HUNDREDS OF LIVES Alberta Health Services data shows more than 400 opioid deaths have been prevented across the province since the introduction of take-home naloxone kits. "It's important to note that that's certainly an underestimate," said Dr. Nick Etches, AHS medical officer for the Calgary Zone. "Because very often, if not the majority of the time, when someone uses one of these kits, they will not report it to us that they've used it." "So really that's a dramatic underestimate in all likelihood in terms of the number of kits that have been used to save lives." Since the program began in July 2015 to prevent overdose deaths from drugs like fentanyl, 6,018 kits were given out to people across Alberta and 408 overdose reversals reported back to AHS. Within the AHS South Zone, which includes both Lethbridge and Medicine Hat, 298 take-home kits were distributed by walk-in clinics to AHS clients - a number that doesn't include the number of kits distributed by other participating agencies. >From Jan. 1 2015 to July 31 2016, EMS across the province have administered naloxone to 2,370 patients who have overdosed and required resuscitation, said Etches. "Since the summer of 2016, I have reported four overdose reversals from our naloxone kits but this is definitely one of the barriers to our program - we hear rumours of our kits preventing overdose/reversing overdose but many go unreported officially or under-reported," said Kim Dick, overdose prevention nurse with HIV Community Link Medicine Hat. The local organization has dispensed 112 kits, and trained around 295 community members on how to respond to opioid overdosing and using the kits since Aug. 2015. The local organization also offers training to registered nurses and registered psychiatric nurses so they can train clients on how to use the kits, as well as training for service providers and agencies on opioid substance use, naloxone, and how to use the kits. From Jan. 2015 to the end of June this year, there were 427 deaths in Alberta associated with fentanyl. Of those, 21 were in the South Zone. There were 197 visits to emergency departments and urgent care in the south zone due to poisoning by opioids (excluding heroin). One kit per 1,000 population is the ratio where an improvement in opioid overdose mortality is seen - and this rate has been achieved, said Etches. But there's more work to be done, he said. "We're seeing really troubling rates of opioid overdose deaths," said Etches, not just in Alberta but across North America - and there is a need to give out even more take-home kits, and expand access to medication assisted treatment with methadone and suboxone, and continuing harm-reduction services like safe-injection services, and raising awareness and reducing stigma. "The other part is really the medical community has now become aware that our rates of opioid prescribing in North America are too high and they need to come down and that needs to come down as well," he said. - --- MAP posted-by: Matt