Manitoba overdose deaths down, but opioids hospitalizing Brandonites twice as often as Winnipeggers: reports

Significantly fewer Manitobansdied of opioidoverdoses in the first half of this year than in 2016 or 2017, while Brandoniteswere hospitalized twice as frequently as Winnipeggersfor opioid poisoning, two new national reports suggest.

Opioids killed at least 22 Manitobans inthe first six months of 2018, according to a newPublic Health Agency of Canadareport on opioid deaths, released Wednesday.

That compares to68 and 36 during the same time framein 2017 and 2016, respectively.

Neighbouring Saskatchewan saw 33 opioiddeaths during the first half of 2018, the report says. There were638 deaths in Ontario, 379 in Alberta and 754 in B.C. during that period.

A related report released Wednesdayby the Canadian Institute for Health Information sayspeople in smaller Canadian cities werehospitalized due to opioid poisoning at far higher rates on average in 2017 compared to large cities.

"We previouslyhad thought that the opioid crisis is a big-city issuebutthis analysis shows us thatthe opioid crisis affects smaller communities as well as bigger communities," said Roger Chen, program leader with the CIHI opioid reporting team.

This holds true when comparingopioidpoisoning and hospitalization rates between Winnipeg and Brandon.

Rate twice as high in Brandon

In the report, small communities are defined as those with populations between 50,000 and 99,000. At just shy of 60,000residents, according to Statistics Canada, Brandon is Manitoba's only city that falls within that range.

The research suggests there were 12 serious opioid hospitalizations in Brandon last year adjusted for age,a rate of26 for every100,000 people.And while there were 89 significant hospitalizations in Winnipeg in 2017, according to data provided by CIHI, thattranslates to a rate of about 12 hospitalizations per 100,000 people.

Provincewide, Manitoba saw just over 12 significantopioid-poisoninghospitalizations per 100,000 people in 2016-17, compared to 9.8per 100,000 the year before, according to CIHI.

Meanwhile, there were 552emergency response calls between January and June 2018 for suspected opioid overdoses, states the Public Health Agency of Canada.

Neither Winnipeg nor Brandonrankin the top 15 cities with the highest rates of hospitalization, though the rate in Brandon isn't far off that list.

Data sheds light on 'what,' not 'why'

Cheng said the CIHI report answers the "what" question,but doesn't necessarily provide any answers as to whyrates are higher in rural or smaller communities. It could have something to do with larger cities having more developed treatment and support systems that lead to lower hospitalization rates, he said.

"This is only one out of many sources of information, and I think information or experiences or insights from front-line practitioners [and]local health authoritieswould greatly complement these numbers and provide better context," he added.

Opioids are commonly prescribed for pain management. While prescribed or illegally obtained oxycodone, morphine and codeine present seriouscommunity health concerns, problematic fentanyluse alsocontinues to send shock waves through Manitobaand communities also struggle to cope with meth addiction.

The CIHIresearch also suggests opioidhospitalization rates have jumped 26 per cent in the past five years Canada-wide. Anaverage of 17 Canadians were hospitalized daily between 2016-17, the report says,and during the same year,hospitalization rates skyrocketed by 73 per cent in Ontario and 23 per cent in Alberta.

More than half of of all 2017opioidpoisonings that led tohospitalizationin Canada were accidental and about a third were from intentional use, CIHI reports.

Thirty per cent more men between the ages of 25 and 44 were hospitalized in 2017 compared to 2016 in Canada, representing the fastest such increase across age demographics.

CIHI researchers for the first time noted a decrease (of six per cent) in the number of hospitalizations from opioid-relateddrug reactions defined in the report as anadverse effects from therapeutic use, as opposed to an accidental overdose between 2013-17.

Some communities improved in part due to revised opioid prescribing guidelines for doctors, more supervised consumption sites, public awareness campaigns and greater availability of the life-saving overdose-emergency drug naloxone, the report states.