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Number Of Fatal Overdoses Declines In County

P-J file photo

There have been 10 drug overdose deaths in Chautauqua County this year, a number that at the moment continues a downward trend from previous years.

As of Sept. 16, county health officials reported 12 drug-related deaths, which includes all overdose deaths and deaths that occurred at least partially as the result of chronic or past drug use. In addition, there are currently 21 pending investigations, which could bump both fatal drug overdoses and drug-related deaths in 2019.

The statistics were provided to The Post-Journal by the county Department of Health & Human Services.

The number of drug-related deaths dropped about 26% from 2017 to 2018 in the county, going from 43 to 32. The number of fatal drug overdoses dropped about 33% between the two years, going from 39 in 2017 to 26 in 2018.

By comparison, there were 23 fatal drug overdoses in 2015 and 33 in 2016.

Breeanne Agett, epidemiology manager at the Department of Health & Human Services, said naloxone — commonly known as Narcan and used to counter the effects of opioid overdoses — as well as other harm-reduction strategies “largely contribute to the reduction that we saw from 2017 to 2018.”

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, from 1999 to 2017 more than 702,000 people died from a drug overdose in the U.S.

In 2017, currently the most recent data for the entire country, there were more 70,000 fatal drug overdoses — making it the leading cause of injury-related death.

Of the deaths in 2017, almost 68% involved a prescription or illicit opioid, the CDC said.

In early October, county officials pointed to a multi-agency partnership, led by the Department of Mental Hygiene to address the local “opioid crisis.” The Chautauqua Substance Abuse Response Partnership was established under a Rural Communities Opioid Response Program grant awarded to the Chautauqua County Department of Mental Hygiene.

The RCORP implementation grant is a $1 million multi-year initiative supported by the Health Resources and Services Administration to address barriers to access in rural communities related to substance use disorder, including opioid use disorder.

“Chautauqua County benefits from the great work of many agencies, government departments, and individuals throughout our county who, in a variety of ways, are actively addressing addiction,” said Steve Kilburn, HRSA grant director at the country Department of Mental Hygiene.

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