An official with the Windsor-Essex County Health Unit is concerned after the latest community alert due to a high number of local opioid overdoses.
This is the second alert issued in less than a week after a notice was put out to the public on July 3.
It’s also just the second time since officials began tracking opioid overdoses back in 2018 that alerts have been issued in consecutive weeks. The only other time was in 2024 when there were five consecutive weeks of opioid alerts.
In the latest alert issued Wednesday evening, the Opioid and Substance Use Notification System (OSUNS) identified an elevated number of opioid overdoses between June 28 and July 4.
In total, there were 29 opioid overdoses reported among local emergency department visits, 19 of which involved fentanyl.
In the first alert this week, six suspected drug-related deaths and 18 opioid overdoses were identified between June 21 and June 27.
WECHU Director of Public Health Programs and Windsor-Essex Community Opioid Substance Strategy (WECOSS) Co-Chair Eric Nadalin says typically, they do see higher rates of overdoses during the summer months.
“Obviously we’ve had quite a bit of heat in our community over the last several weeks. We know that heat is one of the factors that can contribute to higher rates of overdose,” he says. “We know that heat or people who use substances are more vulnerable to dehydration or over heating and other heat-related illnesses and that can lead to overdose in a number of different situations.”
Nadalin says the presence of other substances in the drug supply that have entered the area is another factor that can make the effects of an opioid overdose even worse.
“In the first alert we issued this week around medetomidine, which is a veterinary tranquillizer that we know to be present in some of the fentanyl samples that have been seized in our community. It’s something that can lead to that profound sedation and the lapses in respiratory rhythms and breathing,” he says.
Partners involved in the Windsor-Essex Community Opioid and Substance Strategy, including WECHU, Windsor Regional Hospital, Essex-Windsor EMS, Erie Shores Healthcare, and Police Services, continue to monitor this increase and are working to understand more about these reported cases.