COLUMBUS – The number of deaths from drug overdoses in Franklin County continued to climb in the first nine months of 2019, with a spike during the period from July through September.
https://twitter.com/FranklinCoroner/status/1214218073374281728
According to the office of Coroner Dr. Anahi Ortiz, 421 people died of overdoses from Jan. 1 to Sept. 30, an increase of approximately 15 percent from the same period in 2018 and an acceleration of the increases seen earlier in the year. Ortiz reported that fatal overdoses during the first half of the year had increased 4 percent over the same period the year before.
Despite a recent downturn in overdose deaths statewide, Franklin County’s death rate remained virtually unchanged from 2017 to 2018 and that number represented a 46 percent increase from 2016. Meanwhile, the Ohio Department of Health reported a 22 percent drop in fatal overdoses from 2017 to 2018.
Opiate-related deaths accounted for 90 percent of the overdose deaths for the first three quarters of 2019 in Franklin County, Ortiz said.
The increase was fueled by deaths related to the powerful synthetic opiate fentanyl, which accounted for 83.6 percent of all overdose deaths, Ortiz said.
Two-thirds of the victims were white and more than 69 percent were men.
Ortiz’s office records deaths that occur inside Franklin County, regardless of the victim‘s permanent residence or last known address.
She says that includes homeless people who may have recently lived elsewhere or people who are “couch surfing” and have temporarily moved in with someone in Franklin County, as well as those who overdose and die in motels or hotels but whose last known addresses were in another county or state.