Overdoses from synthetic opioids like fentanyl are steeply rising in Connecticut and across the country. The 12-month period ending in April 2021 was the deadliest year yet, with U.S. overdose deaths reaching a record high of over 100,000, reports the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). This represents a 29% jump from the previous year, with the biggest culprit in more than 75% of deaths being synthetic opioids, including fentanyl.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt seems to me that there is no end in sight to the opioid crisis, and things are not getting better but getting worse. For the last 12 rolling months, overdoses are up about 13-14% in Connecticut and the same is true for fatal overdoses,\u201d says Peter Canning, EMS Coordinator for UConn John Dempsey Hospital in Farmington. He helped develop the initial successful pilot program<\/a> in the City of Hartford that led to the establishment of Connecticut\u2019s Statewide Opioid Reporting Directive (SWORD).<\/p>\n In the latest issue of Public Health Reports<\/a>, lead author Canning and the SWORD program leaders published a 2019 case study on the real-life impact its near-real-time overdose surveillance tracking program is having. The study was part of a series of a dozen new publications regarding \u201cThe Surveillance of Nonfatal and Fatal Drug Overdoses: Best Practices, Innovations, and Lessons Learned<\/a>.\u201d The publications describe various innovative initiatives, like SWORD, funded by the CDC\u2019s Enhanced State Opioid Overdose Surveillance (ESOOS) program to improve the data collection regarding fatal and nonfatal opioid overdoses.<\/p>\n SWORD was created in response to a state law passed in 2018 and fully implemented in June 2019. It requires all EMS agencies statewide to begin rapidly reporting by phone call all opioid overdoses to the Connecticut Poison Control Center at UConn Health, which serves as the Connecticut Department of Public Health\u2019s (DPH) centralized 24\/7 data collection site. This collection of near-real-time overdose data with a 24\/7 overdose tracking map of the state has proven to be a successful early warning system for overdose spikes to help local EMS, health departments, law enforcement, harm reduction groups, and community partners quickly intervene to save more lives.<\/p>\n The SWORD program authors write: \u201cStates hoping to enhance tracking of the overdose epidemic and speed up identification of threats should consider adapting Connecticut\u2019s surveillance system. In particular, they should consider near-real-time EMS reporting through their poison control centers such as in our SWORD model.\u201d<\/p>\n For example, on June 1, 2019, the Connecticut Poison Control Center was alerted by EMS in Hartford that two people unknowingly smoked suspected crack cocaine mixed with fentanyl. Similar suspected overdoses occurred over the next few days, ultimately climbing to 22 overdoses and 6 deaths over a period of five days.<\/p>\n