LEXINGTON, Ky. (LEX 18) — Lexington health officials are looking into what they’re calling an alarming spike in overdoses over the last few days. They’re hoping to help more people be prepared in the event that this happens.
Officials at the Lexington-Fayette County Health Department subscribe to an alert system that tracks overdoses and warns them when it detects a spike. From January 4 to January 7, it reported 29 non-fatal overdoses. The entire week before, there were just 17.
"It says that there's something going on. It could be that there's something new coming into the drug supply. It could be that it's just a batch of something that got in," said John Moses, team leader for the department's harm reduction team.
Moses said they don't yet have any information on what could be causing those overdoses. They only get toxicology reports when someone dies from an overdose. He suspects it could be from people unwittingly using fentanyl.
"A lot of people here in Lexington still think they're using heroin, but we don't really see much heroin in Lexington anymore because fentanyl is the driver of opioid use right now," Moses said.
As they see these unusual rates of overdoses, they want people who might be at risk to follow some advice, and to be sure everyone knows they can get the opioid overdose reversal drug naloxone for free here at the health department.
"Not use alone. For people around them to have Narcan and know how to use it. We can offer substance use treatment as well. We can link them to a variety of treatment programs that are based on exactly what they need," Moses said.
Despite this spike, Moses said they have seen declining rates since an increase through the pandemic.
"Recently, over this past year, we finally leveled out a little bit and we're seeing our numbers be about what they were pre-Covid," Moses said.
Naloxone kits are available at the department during their harm reduction hours. They are Monday and Thursday from 11:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. and Wednesdays from 3:00 p.m. to 6:30 p.m.
