CLARK COUNTY, Ind. (WHAS11) – Officials with the Clark County Health Department have released a new warning.
They believe fentanyl could be to blame for a recent spike in drug overdoses.
Health officials are asking residents to be aware and be prepared.
According to its Facebook page, the department is still waiting on tests results but believes increased fentanyl in a local drug supply is behind the higher numbers in overdoses in Clark County. The department said it could take a while to get back the toxicology to verify and said we may never know the exact circumstances surrounding the spike.
At the end of 2018, federal health officials named fentanyl the deadliest drug in America.
Dr. Eric Yazel, a health officer for the Clark County Health Department says this is the first time a real-time public health alert has been sent out.
"A lot of our work in the last year or two has been to develop the ability to respond in real-team," Yazel said. "We did a double pronged thing. We have a program called Everbridge and what that does is notify all of our first responders, some of the local hospitals, and some businesses in the recovery community, and things like that of what's going on so they can develop their responses to increased activity."
Dr. Yazel said it is a change from the department's usual practice.
"We used to survey our statistics and get them every other week or at the end of the month and say 'wow we had a bad month,' but that doesn't help anyone in real time," he said.
According to Dr. Yazel, he felt it was necessary to send out the alert after hearing reports there was increased overdose activity over the last few days, and reports of overdoses in the same physical location.
"That would tell me that there's a higher likelihood of a more potent product than other individualized things, so that always concerns me," Yazel said.
Yazel said the department received positive feedback about the alert, but he hopes he doesn't have to send it out many times.
"It's a fine line. we don't want to be the little boy that cried wolf every time we hear something," he said. "But if I came to work Monday morning and heard there were three more overdoses on Sunday that died and I just sat on that, I couldn't look myself in the mirror."
Yazel said the hope is that the public health alert would also increase the community's "situational awareness."
"I wanted everybody to think about 'okay I read this, what does this mean to me and what would I do in the given situation that I'm in?'" Yazel said. "If you're a user, be aware that this is an issue. If you're a family member of a user, be aware that this is an issue. if you're in a neighborhood and you come across a product, be aware that that could be a more potent product."
The health department is also encouraging anyone in possession of narcan, the potentially life-saving drug also known as naloxone, to keep it readily available.
"Anything we can do to keep those people alive, get another chance for them to get into treatment and things like that, I think we're doing a lot of good there," Yazel said.
The Clark County Health Department said it will provide any additional updates if and when they become available.