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 2020

Overdose surveillance updates 2019

Week 52, December 22 - December 28, 2019

Week 51, December 15 - December 21, 2019

Week 50, December 8 - December 14, 2019

Week 49, December 1 - December 7, 2019

Week 48, November 24 - November 30, 2019

Week 47, November 17 – November 23, 2019

Week 46, November 10 - November 16, 2019

Week 45, November 3 - November 9 - not available

Week 44, October 27-November 2, 2019

Week 43, October 20-October 26, 2019

Week 42, October 13-October 19, 2019

Week 41 October 6, 2019-October 12, 2019

Week 40 September 29-October 5, 2019

Week 39 September 22-September 28, 2019

Week 38 September 15-September 21, 2019

Week 37 September 8 - September 14, 2019

Week 36 September 1-September 7, 2019

Week 35 August 25-August 31, 2019

Week 34 August 18-August 24, 2019

Week 33 August 11-August 17, 2019

Week 32 August 4-August 10, 2019

Week 31 July 28-August 3, 2019

Week 30 July 21-July 27, 2019

Week 29 July 14-July 20, 2019

Week 28 July 7-July 13, 2019

Week 27 June 30-July 6, 2019

Week 26 June 23-June 29, 2019

Week 25 June 16 - June 22, 2019

Week 24 Jun 9 - June 15, 2019

Week 23 June 2 - Jun 8, 2019

Week 22 May 26 - June 1, 2019

Week 21 May 19 to May 25, 2019

Week 20 May 12 to May 18, 2019

Week 19 May 5 to May 11, 2019

Week 18 April 28 to May 4, 2019

Week 17 April 21 to April 27, 2019

Week 16 April 14 to April 20, 2019

Week 15 April 7 - April 13, 2019

Week 14 March 31 - April 6, 2019

Week 13 March 24 - March 30, 2019

Week 12 March 17 - March 23, 2019

Week 11 March 10 - March 16, 2019

Week 10 March 3 - March 9, 2019

Week 9 February 24 - March 2, 2019

Week 8 February 17 - February 23, 2019

Week 7 February 10 - February 16, 2019

Week 6 February 3 - February 9, 2019

Week 5 January 27 - February 2, 2019

Week 4 January 20 - January 26, 2019

Week 3 January 13 - January 19, 2019

Week 2 January 6 - January 12, 2019

Week 1 December 30, 2018 - January 5, 2019

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.