Viner said the department’s harm reduction coordinator was doing street outreach in West Philadelphia on Wednesday to encourage crack-cocaine users to take precautions against an overdose, such as not using alone; taking a small “test dose” first; and having naloxone on hand. She said the department was distributing the opioid overdose-reversal medication to those drug users, as well as testing strips they can use to see if their drugs are tainted with fentanyl.
By Joel Wolfram
Health Department officials advised healthcare providers to remain vigilant for signs of opioid overdose “even if the drug consumed is reported to be a non-opioid.” Officials are also encouraging clinical toxicology testing to test reported cocaine users for fentanyl as well. So far, clinical toxicology tests for two patients confirmed that fentanyl was the only substance detected, health department officials said, while further tests are pending.
By Max Marin and Christopher Moraff
“Everyone sort of knows, if they read the paper and follow the news, that fentanyl is in all of the heroin now,” said Caroline Johnson, the city’s deputy health commissioner. “Some of the cautions that people are told when they’re using heroin is to take it very slowly, to do a test dose, have naloxone present in case of an overdose. We don’t say those things to cocaine users or crack users.
By Aubrey Whelan
Neighborhoods across the city saw alarming spikes in fatal overdoses, according to data from the Medical Examiner’s Office that show that while the epidemic may be less visible in places like South and West Philadelphia, scores of people there are dying.
By Aubrey Whelan
Philadelphia has twice as many cigarette retailers per capita as any other city, making teenagers far more likely to be lured to smoke, according to Health Commissioner Thomas Farley.
“The major way big tobacco markets cigarettes these days is point-of-sale marketing in stores, and it works,” Farley said. “It gets more kids smoking and more kids addicted.”
Farley said reducing that number is crucial to curbing smoking since most ads for cigarettes are in stores that sell them.
“The rules allow stores to continue to have the permits for as long as they want to, they just simply prevent new stores from opening up in those neighborhoods that have too many stores already,” he explained.
https://kywnewsradio.radio.com/articles/news/proposed-bill-aims-dismantle-anti-smoking-regulations
By Pat Loeb
Gawker
Jackson had gone missing earlier this year. When an unidentified woman died in a Philadelphia hospital on July 20th, authorities matched the body to Jackson’s missing-person’s report. Jackson had been dealing with drug and mental health problems, and her family had been trying to find her. Her son saw the pictures of the body, and positively identified the body as Jackson.
“If someone comes in and they’re a family member and say, ‘That’s my mom,’ that’s generally good enough,” Philadelphia Department of Health spokesman James Garrow said.
https://gawker.com/woman-found-alive-two-weeks-after-her-own-funeral-1193752487
By Max Rivlin-Nadler
Huffington Post
The mix-up came as a surprise since Jackson’s son identified the body.
“The gold standard here [for identifying a body] is visual identification by a family member,” so the son’s identification was taken as fact, Philadelphia Health Department spokesman James Garrow told The Huffington Post.
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/woman-alive-days-after-funeral-sharolyn-jackson_n_3805276
By Amanda Scherker
Inquirer
A Philly Horizon House worker and Jackson’s son, Travis Jackson, 30, identified her from a photo. A medical examiner signed a death certificate and released what they thought was Jackson’s body.
“If someone comes in and they’re a family member and say, ‘That’s my mom,’ that’s generally good enough,” city Health Department spokesman James Garrow said.
https://www.philly.com/philly/hp/news_update/20130825_She_s_alive__so_who_s_in_that_grave_.html
By David Gambacorta
USA Today
The medical examiner determined the woman died of heat stroke, signed a death certificate and released the body to the family, Philadelphia Department of Health spokesman James Garrow said.
“If someone comes in and they’re a family member and say, ‘That’s my mom,’ that’s generally good enough,” Garrow said.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/08/23/woman-alive-after-funeral/2694005/
By Staff
CBS3
A representative of the Philadelphia Health Department says all proper procedures were followed by workers and, with two people, including a family member, identifying her, it was following protocol to release the body.
By Walt Hunter
Fox29
The Collected Works of Jim Garrow 