Sudbury health officials say latest opioid numbers show slight improvement

New data from Public Health Sudbury and Districts and the Community Drug Strategy show the opioid crisis in the city is slowly starting to improve. (File)

New data from Public Health Sudbury and Districts and the Community Drug Strategy show the opioid crisis in the city is slowly starting to improve.

In the first two months of 2022, Greater Sudbury paramedics responded to 94 suspected opioid-related incidents. In 2021, paramedics responded to 127 of those types of calls in the same two-month period.

Public Health Sudbury and Districts said it’s a slight improvement.

“It can be for multiple reasons, but since it’s so early in the year we can’t really confirm what this is going to mean,” said public health nurse Josée Joliat.

The number of emergency room visits for confirmed opioid overdoses are also down this year, dropping to 39 visits compared to 92 in 2021.

The health unit said the distribution of naloxone kits is also down year over year.

“Last year there was almost 4,000 doses of naloxone that were distributed throughout the district and then this year looks like right now with preliminary numbers that we have we are approaching that 2,000 dose mark,” said Joliat.

“We do need to keep in mind that those numbers don’t count in the number of doses that the pharmacies distributed. There’s always a lag in those numbers.”

Public health also said 70 people died from an opioid overdose in the first nine months of 2021.

The safe consumption site was to open this month in the city, but that has been delayed. The health unit said the site is vital because it will decrease the number of overdoses.