Sharp Drop in Drug Overdoses Reported in West Virginia County

A West Virginia county saw a more than 40 percent drop in the number of non-fatal drug overdoses last year as compared to 2017.

The Huntington Herald-Dispatch reports just over 1,000 non-fatal overdoses were reported in Cabell County in 2018, whereas more than 1,800 were reported in 2017.

The physician director at the Cabell-Huntington Health Department, Michael Kilkenny, says there’s no single cause for the decline. He says there were multiple ways the area responded to the opioid epidemic including naloxone training, drug education and use prevention.

Kilkenny says 2018 data on fatal overdoses in the area may be released by 2019. Non-fatal overdoses are counted by county agencies, while fatal overdoses are counted by the state Department of Health and Human Resources.

Related:

• West Virginia Drug Overdose Deaths Reached Record High in 2017
• Report: West Virginia Leads U.S. in Prescription Drug Overdoses

Topics Virginia West Virginia