Doctor Steve Alles, director of the Division of Disease Control, said the numbers have been slowly climbing since 2017, and the city took a proactive stance in mid-2018.
“Starting last summer in July, Disease Control at the health department went out to the Kensington neighborhood, working with Prevention Point of Philadelphia, and we, onsite, in the encampments, on the streets, offered hepatitis A and flu vaccines to the homeless and drug-using people,” he said.
By Kim Glovas
Release
Inquirer
- Overdose death rates dropped in all demographic groups, except for those over 55. Deaths in that age group increased by 29 percent between 2017 and 2018. Health officials saw another age-related shift as well: in 2017, people between 35 and 44 were the most likely age group to die of a drug overdose. In 2018, people between 45 and 54 were at “the most dangerous age” for drug overdoses, health department spokesman James Garrow said.
https://www.philly.com/health/opioid-overdose-deaths-philadelphia-20190514.html
By Aubrey Whelan
KYW
Philadelphia has made a tiny bit of progress in combating overdose deaths. The official death toll for last year was 1,116 people, which is 100 less than in 2017.
The city has mounted a three-pronged attack on overdose deaths: getting more of the overdose-reversing drug Naloxone in circulation, getting more people into treatment and getting doctors to prescribe fewer opioids.
By Pat Loeb
PhillyVoice
he Philadelphia Department of Public Health found that the number of overdose deaths in the city dropped by more than 100 in 2018, marking a decline of 8% over the previous year.
Figures released on Tuesday show that there were 1,116 overdose deaths last year, down from 1,217 in 2017. While modest, the number is encouraging compared to the 34% increase from 907 deaths in 2016 to 2017.
https://www.phillyvoice.com/philadelphia-overdose-deaths-decline-heroin-fentanyl-treatment/
By Michael Tanenbaum
James Garrow, spokesman for the Philadelphia Department of Public Health, which oversees the Medical Examiner’s Office, said he cannot release additional information about the investigation into Greenberg’s death. These investigations are protected under privacy laws and all the office is required to release is the name, cause and manner of death, he said.
But he noted, “In this particular case, the medical examiner must have felt there was sufficient evidence to feel that the decedent in this case had the intention of committing suicide.”
He said officials with the Medical Examiner’s Office have spoken with a private investigator for the Greenberg family and said they would reopen Ellen Greenberg’s case if some new evidence is presented to warrant that, but that has not yet happened.
By Steve Marroni
Derer was killed by multiple blunt impact injuries, according to the medical examiner, and the case has now been ruled a homicide.
https://philadelphia.cbslocal.com/2019/05/10/frankford-robert-derer/
By Cleve Bryan
Officials at the Philadelphia Health Department are issuing a health alert for medical providers throughout the city regarding the ongoing measles outbreaks happening in other cities.
There are no cases reported here, however, Dr. Kristen Feemster, a communicable diseases expert with the department, says it’s likely there will be one given how much people travel between Philadelphia and cities like New York, Los Angeles, and those overseas where there are active outbreaks.
By Alison Gorman
In Philadelphia, the University of Pennsylvania contacted pharmacies in zip codes with high rates of heroin possession in 2016, and found that 40 percent of the pharmacies they contacted stocked the drug, said Jim Garrow, a spokesman for the city’s health department. Pharmacy students from the University of the Sciences later launched an education campaign at dozens of local pharmacies. In early 2018, about 75 percent of the city’s pharmacies were carrying Narcan — and by the end of the year, Mayor Jim Kenney had signed a law requiring every pharmacy in the city to stock it.
https://www.philly.com/news/narcan-availability-pharmacies-new-jersey-20190506.html
By Aubrey Whelan
Allison Herens, the harm reduction coordinator for the city, said secondary traumatic stress or ways to cope with the trauma of reversing overdoses are not currently discussed in the city’s naloxone trainings, but is something the city will be investing in through resilience trainings in the future.
“I think these are really important things to be thinking about,” Herens said. “Thinking about how we could better prepare people for these incidents and how you might advise them to deal with any trauma and emotional feelings about the experience.”
“Because we recognize it can be emotional, it can be triggering, it can be hard,” she added.
By Henry Savage, Evan Easterling and Maggie Loesch
James Garrow, a spokesperson for the city health department, said that to prevent the spread of vaccine-preventable diseases like measles and mumps, high percentages of children should receive the required immunizations on schedule. Philadelphia is in better shape than many other communities, Garrow said, because about 95 percent of its students have received one dose of a vaccine against measles, mumps and rubella, and 75 percent have received two doses.
“The School District of Philadelphia has policies to enforce the requirement that children receive their recommended immunizations, and the Department of Public Health is working with the School District to assess and maintain high levels of immunization coverage at individual schools,” Garrow said in a statement.
By Kristen Graham
Others in the HIV prevention field agreed that if you can get past the logistical obstacles, the ER offers a great opportunity to start people on PrEP.
“I think you capture a population that may not be accessing medical care elsewhere that may be using emergency rooms as their primary-care providers” said Erika Aaron, the PrEP clinical adviser for Philadelphia’s Aids Activities Coordinating Office.
By Nina Feldman
The report also found that sales of amphetamines, such as Adderall, a popular ADHD drug, increased by 617 percent between 2000 and 2017 in Philadelphia, and pharmaceutical companies that make stimulants are spending more on free meals for doctors, presumably to bring their attention to the product.
By Aubrey Whelan
The Collected Works of Jim Garrow 