The overdoses were concentrated in downtown and then spread throughout the city.
Officials in Austin, Texas, are investigating an “outbreak” of fatal drug overdoses across the city.
According to the local ABC News affiliate, Austin-Travis County Emergency Medical Services (ATCEMS) and the Austin Police Department (APD) had received a total of 51 calls for suspected overdoses as of Tuesday afternoon, including four It was announced that his death was suspected to be related to an overdose. KVUE.
KVUE reported that APD said the overdose patients ranged in age from their 20s to their 50s and included a wide range of races and ethnicities. The identities of those who died from overdoses have not been determined, but their ages ranged from mid-30s to mid-50s.
ATCEMS Emergency Department Director Angela Kerr said the surge in calls began around 9 a.m. Central Time Monday morning and was concentrated in the downtown area. Monday night press conference. After that, calls started coming in from all over the city, including homes, businesses, and areas accessible to the general public.
Kerr said teams were immediately dispatched to the area and Narcan rescue kits were distributed. Narcan is administered as a nasal spray, and the drug’s active ingredient, naloxone, can quickly restore breathing in the event of an opioid overdose.
ATCEMS typically receives two to three overdose calls a day, but Monday’s call volume was a 1,000% increase in calls, said Dr. Heidi Abraham, ATCEMS associate medical director. It is said that it was equivalent.
“The trend we’re seeing in this group of overdoses is that they’re extraordinarily lethal,” she said at a news conference. “We haven’t experienced an overdose of this magnitude in years.”
Abraham said the overdose victims reported using several different drugs, but did not elaborate on the specific drugs.
ATCEMS spokeswoman Krista Stedman said authorities believe the “spread of infection” is not due to “a new cluster in town” likely from the same source or the same couple, given the similarity of symptoms among the patients. He said he doubted it.
Officials said they will continue to provide updates as they become available.
This comes as a record number of Americans die from drug overdoses. According to , there were approximately 108,000 drug overdose deaths in 2022. Preliminary data This is about 1% more than the approximately 107,000 overdose deaths recorded in 2021.
In Texas, there will be only 15.4 drug addiction-related deaths per 100,000 people in 2022, the highest rate since at least 2011. Preliminary data from the Texas Department of State Health Services (TDSHS).
Travis County had the fifth-highest number of preliminary drug overdose deaths in 2022, with 308 people, most of them white residents.
States previously said fentanyl, a synthetic opioid 50 to 100 times more potent than morphine, may be causing an increase in overdoses and overdose deaths.
TDSHS says Preliminary data Travis County has 188 deaths from fentanyl poisoning, the second-highest number of deaths after Harris County, where Houston is located.
