MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Shelby County health officials are sounding the alarm on a silent pandemic happening in the Mid-South.
In the past 30 days, officials have seen nearly 400 drug overdoses and 14% of them were fatal.
“We’ve never seen anything quite like this,” Dr. David Sweat, the health department’s chief epidemiologist, said.
The Memphis Area Prevention Coalition say they typically distribute between 500 to 1,000 narcan kits each month.
“With the social distancing, we can’t train large groups of people anymore so less people are getting the narcan,” said the coalition’s overdose prevention specialist Josh Well.
From April 7 to May 7, the health department logged 391 suspected drug overdoses. Of those, 58 were fatal.
On May 5 alone, there were 20 overdoses, of which four were fatal.
Sweat said there were 56 overdoses from May 5 to May 7.
“We do not normally see that. We typically have on average about eight or nine overdose events a day in Shelby County. That’s kind of our norm and so to see something like 56 in three days, that’s very unusual,” said Sweat.
Sweat says he can’t say for sure what may be driving the sudden spike, but Weil has his suspicions.
“The stimulus checks, so people that have opioid use disorder now have a lot of extra money. Now, there’s also a lot of extra time people have and they’re staying at home,” Weil said.
The Memphis Area Prevention Coalition will be doing another narcan handout Wedesnday evening on Summer Avenue.
You can get a free narcan kit anytime by calling them at 901-495-5103.
