Facing Fentanyl: Is King County’s fatal crisis finally dipping?
Sep 20, 2024, 1:09 PM | Updated: 2:48 pm
There are signs King County’s fentanyl crisis might be easing.
The rate of deadly overdoses dropped 15% in the first seven months of this year compared to the same time period last year.
The King County Health Department revealed fatal fentanyl overdoses have declined 20% in the first six months of this year compared to the first half of 2023. The county’s data showed there have been 751 fatal deaths to date this year compared to 1,339 fentanyl deaths in 2023, putting the daily numbers at 3.66 overdose deaths a day last year compared to 2.84 overdose deaths a day this year.
Heather Bosch’s series ‘Facing Fentanyl:’ Hear the voices of people hurting
“I think eventually the death rate is going to go down because this wildfire will burn it out, and it will be burning out on people who have died from fentanyl,” Caleb Banta-Green, Ph.D., a doctor with the University of Washington (UW), told KIRO Newsradio.
The county credited proactive steps for this drop, like its effort to widely distribute Naloxone — a life-saving medication that can reverse the effects of an opioid overdose. But fentanyl overdoses were the No. 1 cause of death for homeless people in King County in 2023, with officials knowing there’s still a long way to go in improving this crisis.
“People that we’ve seen overdose in one week or one month, and they did not want to be treated, they had a subsequent overdose that was fatal,” Seattle Fire Lieutenant and Paramedic Brian Wallace said.
Facing Fentanyl: Addiction in pregnancy ‘ruins multiple lives’
Fran Humphreys told KIRO Newsradio she lost her daughter to the epidemic in 2021.
“She bought what she thought was Percocet a couple of days after she had graduated from beauty school and, sadly, she took what she thought was Percocet, and she never woke up,” Humphreys said.
Head here to read Heather Bosch’s series “Facing Fentanyl,” which won a 2024 Regional Edward R. Murrow Award in the Region 1 Radio | Large Market category. The series also won a Gracie Award as the best “Hard News Feature” by any local radio station in America.
Listen to the series by heading here or tapping on the player below.
Heather Bosch is an award-winning anchor and reporter on KIRO Newsradio. You can read more of her stories here. Follow Heather on X, or email her here.
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