For the second time in less than a week, an overdose alert has been issued by the Windsor-Essex Community Opioid and Substance Strategy.
Windsor-Essex County Medical Officer of Health, Dr. Wajid Ahmed says on November 5th, there were seven cases where people arrived at hospital emergency departments because of overdoses and substance misuse.
He says one was related to opioid use while four others were confirmed to be amphetamine-related.
"We feel that given our last alert, the numbers are continuing to exceed the threshold that we have established or expecting for this time of the year," says Dr. Ahmed.
Results on the other two cases are pending but, as of now, he says there are no connections between each case.
"There maybe something going on and we wanted to keep the community informed about the ongoing number of overdoses in the community," says Dr. Ahmed.
On November 1, an an alert was issued after 11 people went to area emergency departments on October 30th and 31st because of overdoses, with five opioid-related.
The local health unit says paramedics with Essex-Windsor EMS administered Naloxone, the drug that reverses an overdose, seven times during that week.
Dr. Ahmed says community partners involved with the strategy continue to monitor the overdose increases.
"Apparently we couldn't find any connection in all of these cases or any potential link to say there's something happening in the community but we're asking for our partners to maybe look for those links, if they're aware of it and maybe help us to find the answer we are looking for," says Dr. Ahmed.
Windsor and Essex County have the seventh highest rate of people who use opioids in Ontario.
Public Health Ontario revealed in September that there were 22 opioid-related deaths in this region in the first three months of 2019.