EVANSVILLE — Fatal overdoses may be slowing down in Vanderburgh County.
Fewer people have died of confirmed overdoses so far this year than last at the same time, according to Coroner Steve Lockyear.
Twenty people died of confirmed overdoses in Vanderburgh County from January to May this year, Lockyear said. That’s about 55 percent of the fatal overdoses last year during those same five months.
In that five-month period in 2017, drug overdoses killed 36 people in the county. By the end of the year, 82 people had died from drug or alcohol overdoses.
Opioid overdoses increased quickly in Vanderburgh County over the last few years. In 2016, the death toll of heroin and fentanyl was 29 people, a jump to more than four times 2015's total of six.
More: Overdose deaths in Vanderburgh County in 2017 already higher than 2016
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While Vanderburgh County was hit hard by the opioid epidemic, opioids such as fentanyl and heroin were not the only drugs leading to fatal overdoses. Methamphetamine also caused almost a dozen overdose deaths last year, according to the Coroner’s Office, and four deaths so far this year.
Lockyear has previously said fatal overdoses are often caused by a combination of drugs, and coroners try to determine the primary drug that contributed to someone’s death. A mix of substances led to at least 13 deaths on 2017 and four so far this year.
The combination of fentanyl and heroin caused another three people’s deaths so far this year, Coroner’s Office records show.
The drugs are sometimes cut together for a more powerful high, but that can be dangerous — fentanyl is a synthetic drug 50 to 100 times more powerful than morphine. The National Institute on Drug Abuse warns that high doses can stop a person’s breathing.
While meth has caused the most deaths of any one drug in Vanderburgh County this year, opioids heroin, fentanyl and morphine led to seven fatal overdoses from January to May.
In addition to the deadly mix of heroin and fentanyl, at least one person died of a heroin overdose, two died of a fentanyl overdose and one died of a morphine overdose.
Evansville Fire Department started carrying naloxone, also called Narcan, in April 2017. Area ambulances have had Narcan since the 1980s. The medication reverses the effects of an opioid overdose.
“We are seeing less fatal overdoses compared to last year, but our numbers don’t support that we are using any less (naloxone),” EFD Chief of Administration Charles Hertzberger said.
From April to August last year, firefighters used 34 doses of naloxone. In the same time period this year, they used 44.
“I am showing an increase of 10 doses over last year,” Hertzberger said. “That increase could be from a possible increased use of narcotics, or from our gained experience in when to use.”
Several local agencies carry the antidote — Evansville Police Department and Vanderburgh County Sheriff’s Office are both equipped with naloxone as well.
Law enforcement officials said they’ve used about the same number of naloxone doses this year as last year at this time.
As of Friday, Evansville police officers had administered 21 doses of naloxone this year. Last year during the same time, 20 doses were administered. The Sheriff’s Office has administered three doses so far this year — half of last year’s total in the first seven months of 2018.
Seventeen of the 20 fatal overdoses in Vanderburgh County this year were ruled accidental.