Overdose surveillance

Since 2011, after a spike of heroin-related deaths in Vancouver, Vancouver Coastal Health (VCH) started weekly monitoring of overdoses at emergency departments (ED) and Insite, Vancouver's supervised consumption site, to support local and provincial harm reduction activities.

In April 2016, BC's Provincial Health Officer, Dr. Perry Kendall declared a public health emergency under the Public Health Act due to a significant increase in drug-related overdoses and deaths in British Columbia. In response to the declaration, a series of harm reduction activities were implemented in the VCH region, including the creation of overdose prevention sites (OPSs) in highly affected areas. Enhanced epidemiology and surveillance programs were implemented at VCH to monitor and evaluate the additional harm reduction interventions.

These updates summarize overdose visits in 9 EDs, and at supervised consumption services and overdose prevention sites within the VCH region.

Overdose surveillance updates 2018

Week 41 October 7 - October 12, 2018

Week 40 September 30 - October 6, 2018

Week 39 September 23 - September 29, 2018

Week 38 September 16 - September 22, 2018

Week 37 September 9 - September 15, 2018

Week 36 September 2 - September 8, 2018

Week 35 August 26 - September 1, 2018

Week 34 August 19 - August 25, 2018

Week 33 August 12 - August 18, 2018

Week 32 August 5 - August 11, 2018

Week 31 July 29 - August 4, 2018

Week 30 July 22 - July 28, 2018

Week 29 July 15 - July 21, 2018

Week 28 July 8 - July 14, 2018

Week 27 July 1 - July 7, 2018

Week 26 June 24 - June 30, 2018

Week 25 June 17 - June 23, 2018

Week 24 June 10 - June 16, 2018

Week 23 June 3 - June 9, 2018

Week 22 May 27 - June 2, 2018

Week 21 May 20 - May 26, 2018

Week 20 May 13 - May 19, 2018 - not available

Week 19 May 6 - May 12, 2018 - not available

Week 18 April 29 - May 5, 2018

Week 17 April 22 - April 28, 2018

Week 16 April 15 - April 21, 2018

Week 15 April 8 - April 14, 2018

Week 14 April 1 - April 7, 2018

Week 13 March 25 - March 31, 2018

Week 12 March 18 - March 24, 2018

Week 11 March 11 - March 17, 2018

Week 10 March 4 - March 10, 2018

Week 9 February 25 - March 3, 2018

Week 8 February 18 - February 24, 2018

Week 7 February 11 - February 17, 2018

Week 6 February 4 - February 10, 2018

Week 5 January 28 - February 3, 2018

Week 4 January 21 - January 27, 2018

Week 3 January 14 - January 20, 2018

Week 2 January 7, 2017 - January 13, 2018

Week 1 December 31, 2017 - January 6, 2018

Please note these numbers only reflect the suspected overdoses identified by the surveillance systems and may not represent the actual overdoses in each site. All data are considered preliminary and may change as more data are received.