The number of emergency room visits from heroin overdose is rising dramatically in Virginia, more than doubling over the past year.
The Virginia Department of Health revealed over the first four months of 2016, roughly 500 people visited emergency rooms in the state with the primary discharge diagnosis being heroin overdose. Officials are disturbed with the rising trend in heroin addiction seen across the state, reports WTOP.
Officials say one of the driving factors in the alarming spike in heroin overdose is from legislation cracking down on prescription painkillers abuse. Virginia policies regarding prescription drugs have been tightened, making it harder for addicts to obtain pills.
“What we’ve done is closed one door and opened a potential door which is now being filled by this illicit market of heroin,” Dr. Marissa Levine, Virginia’s state health commissioner told The Washington Post. “I do worry about the ongoing impact in terms of what hospitals can do and then what does it mean…for people seeking emergency care.”
While heroin overdoses still only represent roughly one percent of all emergency room visits, the trend is troubling health officials in the state. Heroin deaths in the state rose from 239 in 2014 to 344 in 2015, according to The Washington Post.
“I talk closely with my partners and we get concerned about trends,” Matthew Rhames, an emergency room doctor at Fauquier Health and Inova Fair Oaks Hospital told The Washington Post. “The general feeling is: ‘Gosh, it seems like we’re seeing more of these.'”
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